Memories Untold
by nt'kit
Summary: Beautiful big, innocent eyes; smooth, silky black hair; gorgeous bright smile… The problem? He just described his little brother. And the shadows of the past and those horny guys at school weren't making things easier for Ace. Summary might change.
1. Prologue

Hello there! As you can see_, this_ is the reason of why I haven't updated 'The wonders of being a kid'… and school too. Anyway, I've wanted to post a drama fic for a while now, and one with a plot too, so here it is! Actually I don't have much to say now, except: sorry for my extremely long prologue.

Warning: Mostly language, I've rated it T to be safe. This is a yaoi fic; you've been warned.

I don't own One Piece, obviously.

I'm done here, so enjoy!

**

* * *

**

~Prologue~

Run, run, _run._

Run away little boy, run away, for as you know, the moment you get caught, the moment you will die. So tell me, little boy, what are you running for? Whom are you running of? _What are you scared of, little boy?_

Dark.

No matter where you looked at, everything was dark. The small boy clutched the rusty iron pipe tightly in his little hands, small puffs of air were showing themselves in front of the boy's face as he ran through the empty town. The night was cold, but the boy was too scared to even care that the cold breeze of the night clashed violently with his sweaty face.

He couldn't hear those footsteps anymore, and after a second glance behind him, he let his small back lean against the wall of the alley. The black haired boy let out a sigh of relief as he turned his gaze up. Everything was so dark, so empty. There was not a single star visible in the sky, not even the faint light of the moon could be seen through those thick clouds, as if they were keeping the light to themselves, leaving the small town to the mercy of the shadows of the night.

The boy let out a groan of pain as he clutched his left shoulder tightly; those bastards had stabbed him when he tried to run away, he had been too careless. He let his body slide to the ground, his eyes never leaving the empty sky as he recalled that night's events…

A raven haired boy made his way through the dark alleys of the village; it was only during night time that he could sneak into the busy restaurants and steal some meat or bread to satisfy his begging stomach. He successfully made it to the back of a small bar that he knew a little too well. He hid himself behind some trash cans and waited for the right moment. That small bar had only one problem: they always had the back door open, inviting either robbers or animals to enter that small, cozy kitchen. When the boy thought nobody was looking, he slipped through the open door and grabbed a piece of meat that some chef left unattended. Without as much as a second glance, the boy left the place successfully, a small smile adorning his muddy face.

He knew this was wrong, and he wasn't proud of stealing food, but no place would let him work because of his young age and starving to death was definitely not one of his options.

He took one big bite of his piece of meat before immediately stuffing it in the pockets of his worn-out jacket, deciding to save the rest for tomorrow morning and maybe even for the afternoon, knowing that it would be too risky to try and rob something at the light of day. A cold breeze made its way to the boy and he hugged himself, rubbing his arms to keep himself warm.

November was about to end, and the cold was already unbearable in the small village, making the nights too cold to go out unprotected. The raven haired boy sighed, he needed to find someplace warm to spend the night, otherwise he would most likely catch a cold and he didn't have the money to buy some medicines.

A flicker of light caught the boy's attention, he was already in the park of the village, a long park that was located at the center of the town, making it the perfect spot for picnics and for the kids to run and play. He walked through the empty park hoping to find some place to sleep, the light the lamppost emitted guiding him through the empty road. He needed some place that would protect him from the cold wind, at least that's what he hoped for.

Too deep in thought, the small boy didn't notice two other figures waking through that same road, stumbling every now and then. It was until one of the figures fell and the other one started to laugh loudly that the little boy acknowledged their presence. He grunted, they must be drunk. Without paying those drunken guys any mind, the small boy walked through the road with his mind set on his own goal, and he would've successfully ignored those guys, had it not been that one of them grabbed him by the arm, a nasty smile was on his face.

"Look what we have here," He said spinning the boy around so he could see his face. "Hey kid, wanna come and play with us?"

The boy wrinkled his nose in disgust. The man that grabbed him had his face close to his, close enough for the boy to smell the beer on his breath. "Let go." He growled, giving the man a glare.

"Oh, a kid!" The other man said, getting himself off the ground and nearing the glaring boy. "What about we have some fun with him, eh?"

Fear spread through the boy's body, but he tried his best to keep his face calm. What were those guys going to do with him? He saw the second guy approaching him with his muddy hand extended. He started to panic, what should he do at this moment? He was too deep down the road and no one else seemed to be taking a late walk, and screaming would just be a waste of time…

Something caught his attention when he tried to free his arm from the drunken guy, it was just a few meters away from him, he could even reach it with his foot if he tried. He turned around, the man was already in front of him, and a maniac glint could be seen in his eyes. A shiver ran down the boy's spine and in one swift move, he pulled the rusty iron pipe that was shining under the lamppost behind him. He grabbed it with his free arm – his right arm – and in one hard swing, he hit the man in front of him on the head sending him to the ground as he clutched his head in pain.

The other one let go of him and rushed to his companion's side, checking his head for any injury. When the other man finally let go of his head, they both stood up. The boy could now see them as they stayed still under the light of the lamppost.

The one on the right was thin and tall, he wore extremely shabby clothes and they were torn around the edges. His light brown hair reached to his shoulders, but what the boy found most weird were his glasses, heart-shaped glasses. The other man, the one he'd just hit, was also thin and tall, although just a bit shorter than the other one. His black hair was swept back and he wore round glasses. A trail of blood was running down his face. The glare he was giving the boy managed to get the hairs at the back of his head stand, but the boy just tightened his grip on his iron pipe.

"You'll regret that." Said the shorter man as he grabbed a knife from under his black cloak, the other man smirked, somehow finding this whole situation amusing as he crossed his arms over his chest.

The boy turned his head around, maybe he could run back and hide in one of the alleys, but that possibility vanished as soon as the man with the heart-shaped spectacles walked around him, blocking his other way out. "I don't think so." He said smugly as he too took out a knife from his pant pockets.

The boy took a long, deep breath; he didn't have time for this, he needed to get out as soon as possible, and with a look full of determination, he dashed forward, his pipe held high as he aimed once more for the man with the round glasses' head. But to his surprise, that same man dodged his attack and instead stabbed the little boy on the shoulder, taking the opportunity of him stopping to kick him on the back and send him flying forward.

The boy grabbed his bleeding shoulder, feeling the pain travel all down his body as he tried to stand up. He saw the man that just stabbed him push his glasses up with the palm of his hand, followed by a nasty smirk as he licked the blood from the knife. "Let's make thing interesting." He said as he stepped over the boy's shadow. "We'll give you ten seconds to run, little boy. Amuse us."

Fear took possession of the boy's body as a shaking hand grabbed the pipe that was lying beside him and he ran. He didn't know where he was going, but he knew he had to hide. He was already at the end of the road; he could hide into one of the alleys of the city and stay there the rest of the night when he suddenly heard some steps behind him. He didn't have time to think were to go, so with a quick turn he dashed through the empty streets. He went right, left, then right again, hoping to lose those guys along the way, and when he couldn't hear the steps anymore he dared to go into an alley and catch his breath once again.

It was hard living by himself, having no one to depend on, or no one to go when in trouble. He sighed, deeply wishing that this was just a dream – a nightmare, and that he would wake up and see his gentle mother cooking breakfast with the pink apron that she always wore and his grinning dad patting the seat next to him so they could all eat breakfast together…

His dad… he didn't hate him, he couldn't bring himself to hate him. He was so kind and caring, he trusted people so easily, he was so sure that everyone was kind hearted when given the chance… And yet, this trust that he gave so easily was what had ended his life, bringing suffering to his mother and him. It was all because of that man. He killed his father, he killed his mother, and with that ugly, twisted grin he let him live. What for? Hadn't he suffered enough already? Why didn't he kill him too when he had the chance? The raven haired boy unconsciously clutched his pipe harder, forgetting for one moment the pain his left shoulder was emitting. He was going to get stronger, he was going to avenge his late parents, he was going to make that man regret the moment he forced him to live… _He would struggle to live._

A sudden rustling behind him made his heart skip a beat. The boy unconsciously grabbed tighter his pipe and waited. He stayed rooted to the spot, sharpening his hearing as much as he could to hear any noise. Those guys couldn't be on the alley, it was a dead-end and he was standing at the entrance of it; if anything, someone had been there before he entered.

"Who's there?" He growled while turning around. He squinted his eyes to try and see something, anything at all, but the back alley was pitch black, and the hidden moon would not let a single ray glow down.

Another rustling was given as an answer. The boy scowled, be it a kitty or a person, he was annoyed already. How could it be that this night turned out so wrong? He wouldn't take this any longer. "Who's there!" He demanded once more, but there was no answer to greet him. He smashed his pipe against a pile of boxes that were placed beside him, if whatever was there was not going to come out, he would make it come by force.

A small 'Eep!' was heard from behind a trash can bin after the boxes came down. The boy turned his head to the source of the sound and glared. "Come out." He said in a threatening voice.

More rustling was heard from behind the bin, and a moment later, a shadow crept from behind it and stood on the middle of the alley. The boy pointed his pipe to the shadow, ready to use it if the shadow decided to attack him.

"Who are you?" He asked after a few seconds of staring, with such little light he was unable to see if it was a boy or a girl. The shadow took some steps forward and the boy could finally see him. He was definitely younger than him, if he had to guess, he would say he was about six years old. He had a dirty old sweater that looked a little too big for him since it slid down showing his left shoulder and reached below his hips; underneath he was wearing some ripped shorts. His knees were covered in band-aids and dirt and he wasn't wearing any shoes. He turned his sight to the boy's face; his messy black hair was covered in a big straw hat, his lower lip was trembling and he had a scar under his eye. When he saw his eyes the boy gulped, they were big and watery; he was about to cry.

"H-Hey…" He said slowly, a crying kid was definitely not one of his strong pints. The boy looked at him, and if possible, his eyes widened even more. Now tears were rolling down his cheeks. "W-Wait! Don't cry! Look, I'll lower the pipe okay?" The younger boy sniffed loudly as he wiped his tears with his sleeve, he watched closely as the older boy lowered the pipe and stared at him with a nervous look. They stayed like that for a few seconds until a loud rumbling noise echoed through the alley. The younger boy stared at his stomach in curiosity, poking it every now and then as if expecting for it to make that strange noise once again.

The older boy sighed; he just couldn't believe his luck. After one glance into the empty street, the boy walked over to the boxes he had thrown a while ago and took a seat next to them. He placed his pipe on his side and after noticing that the younger boy was following his every move, he took out the piece of meat he had stolen earlier and handed it to the boy.

"Eat this." He didn't know why, but for some odd reason he had this feeling of protectiveness toward the smaller boy; maybe because he reminded him of himself, young and helpless, sacred of the future and the dangers it might bring with him.

The younger boy stared at the piece of meat for a moment before carefully taking it from the grasp of the older boy. He kept switching glances from the food to the boy, until a grin spread on his face and he sat in front of the scowling boy. "Thank you!" He said cheerfully with a bright smile on his face. The older boy looked away, hiding the small blush on his face.

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy," The younger boy said before taking one big bite from the piece of meat. "Who are you?"

"Ace." The older boy said in a barely audible voice, still averting his gaze from the younger kid.

He didn't know why he was embarrassed at all, maybe the fact that he hadn't spoken to anybody that much in such a long time, or that someone was actually eager to know about him was what made him nervous. He turned his head toward the kid once more and his blush deepened a few shades of crimson, the kid – Luffy, was it? – was now a few inches away from his face and staring fixedly at him. "You talk too low!" A small pout appeared on his muddy face. "I didn't hear your name!"

Ace opened and closed his mouth stupidly, but no words came out. He pushed the kid lightly on the chest to give them some space in-between, "You're too close." He mumbled before standing up. "My name is Ace, so stop bother- AH! You ate all my meat!"

Luffy stared at the older boy in curiosity as he licked the now clean meat bone in his tiny hands. "Ah, yes. Thank you, it was really good." The boy said mindlessly while staring at the bone.

"It was MY food!" Ace hissed angrily, trying to keep his voice as low as possible.

Luffy stood up and stared at the older boy for a moment before bowing down. "I'm sorry."

"YOU DON'T LOOK SORRY AT ALL!" Ace exploded before hitting the boy on the head. "Seriously, after all the trouble I had to go through to get this…"

Luffy rubbed his newly made bump while glaring at the older boy. What was all that fuss about; he gave _him_ the meat to begin with. Luffy watched the older boy pacing back and forth while still grumbling about his stolen food, and in the midst of all that noise, he heard Ace's stomach give a faint rumble. Luffy guessed he hadn't felt it since he was still talking loudly, but he had a plan. He would give Ace some food back as in thank you.

"Yosh!" The younger boy said, grabbing the pacing kid's attention. "When I get home I will give you lots and lots of food!"

Ace stared at the smaller kid in disbelief, when he gets home? What was that supposed to mean anyway? Many thoughts rushed to his head before he decided to ask him the most suitable. "What do you mean when you get home? Are you lost?"

The smaller kid nodded and sat down once more, Ace followed him soon after. "I got lost three days ago." Luffy said calmly. "I saw some kids bullying a dog, so I went to punch them. But the kids started to run and I followed them…"

"…And then you got lost." Ace finished for him while sighing. This kid probably had some worried parents looking for him. "Alright, when daylight comes I'll help you look for your family."

The smaller kid smiled that trademark grin of his once more before nodding enthusiastically. "Okay! Shanks must be really worried! And gramps –" A shiver ran down his spine and Ace noticed how the color drained from the kid's face. "Gramps is scary…"

Ace chuckled at the boy's scared face, that grandpa of his must be really something. He continued to listen at Luffy's ramblings about his family before noticing how cold the night had turned. He hissed lightly as the wind clashed with his wound and clutched his shoulder tightly. He didn't know how long he had been hiding, but he might as well sleep in this alley with the kid, after all he had promised Luffy he would help him find his family in the morning.

Ace had been so deep in thought that he didn't notice when Luffy stopped talking, or when the kid ripped one piece of his shorts and started bandaging –quite badly – his bleeding wound. Only when the boy's hand slipped and he accidentally brushed his finger with the wound, Ace was painfully brought back to reality. "Ouch! What are you doing?"

"You're bleeding." Luffy said, matter of factly, as he made a rather lousy knot on the boy's shoulder. "Shanks told me that when you're hurt, you have to stop the bleeding first."

Ace stared at his now bandaged arm and sweat-dropped, he would fix that later; he didn't want to hurt the kid's feelings by pointing out how bad his nursing skills were. "Uh… Thanks." He mumbled while patting the kid's covered head.

Ace didn't know how many minutes passed since then, because Luffy kept talking non-stop and both smiled and laughed at his mentioned adventures with his grandpa. He had forgotten about the cold, about the burning pain in his shoulder, and about the drunken guys that ruined his night. But all good things come to an end, and tonight was no different. Too immerse in talk, neither of them noticed how a shadow crept down that same alley, or how the glinting of the knives the figures were holding kept coming closer and closer.

"My, my; look what we have here, the brat from before got himself a friend."

Not a second after hearing those words, Ace stood up sharply and automatically grabbed the rusty pipe that was resting at his side.

"Ace? Who are they?" Luffy asked standing up too, he gave a small step forward, trying to see the faces of the figures before him.

"Get behind me, Luffy!" Ace called, grabbing the boy by the hand and pulling him behind before those men could do something to him. "Stay here, those guys are dangerous."

The man with the round spectacles got closer and Ace could see his face clearly, the other man was standing right beside him. "Oh, you break my heart kid, afte rall the trouble we got into to finally find you." He said with a nasty grin as he took one more step forward. "And who's that behind you, hm?"

Before Ace could even swing his pipe, the man had already kicked him aside, making him crash against the wall he was leaning some minutes before. "Ace!" Luffy called, but the man with the heat-shaped glasses had a hold on him already. He grabbed his tiny, teary face brusquely by the jaw and obliged him to look at him. The man with the round glasses smirked and bent down to Luffy's level.

"Well, well; aren't you cute?"

Fear took over the younger boy the moment those words were said. He didn't know what the man meant with that, but something told him to run, to run away as far as he could and don't look back. He turned his head to the side and saw a panting Ace trying to stand up. He was in so much pain, but he kept his gaze on the crying Luffy, never breaking contact with him to assure him that everything would be okay. "A-Ace…" Luffy called between sniffs, he was scared.

"Let… Let go of… Luffy." Ace panted when he finally stood up, he was leaning on the pipe while trying to gain his balance once more. It was not until he saw the man with the heart-shaped glasses lick his lips lustfully while watching Luffy, and suddenly turn the boy's head painfully towards him making the small kid emit a cry of pain that something in Ace snapped. "Don't… Don't touch him!" And with a new wave of adrenaline, he dashed onward and in one hard swing, he knocked down the heart-shaped glasses man into unconsciousness.

"Luffy." Ace called calmly from where he was standing, clutching his shoulder tightly but trying not to show any sign of pain in his face so that the smaller kid wouldn't worry.

Luffy nodded and ran toward Ace, hiding behind him and hugging him from the small of his back. "Ace… I'm scared…" Sniffed the boy while grabbing tightly Ace's ripped jacket. "Let's get out of here…"

Ace nodded but stayed still were he was. The other man had reached his unconscious friend while Luffy ran to him; Ace noticed he had tried to wake him up with no avail. The man had turned his gaze at them and Ace could feel a shiver run down his spine. Luffy's grip tightened. The man slowly stood up while pushing his glasses back with the palm of his hand, he took out the knife he had used to stab Ace on the shoulder earlier on and threw it beside his unconscious friend's body. That nasty grin appeared once more as he stared at the kids. "So you wanna play, huh?" He took a step closer and a maniac glint appeared on his eyes. "Two can play this game."

It all happened to fast, one moment the man was standing a few feet away from them, and the next, he was already before Ace. The boy had no time to react, because when he had finally assimilated what was going on the man had already punched him straight on the face and away from Luffy.

"Ace!" Luffy cried. He tried to go and help him, but the man kicked him aside making him land further from Ace.

He smirked, watching how the small boy struggled to get back to his feet and tried to go over to Ace. He turned his head to the older boy and said, "Let me show you, boy, what it feels like to see how someone attacks your comrade."

Ace felt his heart sink at those words, it seemed Luffy hadn't heard anything at all, because he kept going to were Ace was. And then, Ace saw it. That man had grabbed something from under his cloak. It felt as if everything had slowed down, the pain on Ace's body seemed to disappear, he saw how that man pointed his gun at Luffy and he felt himself hugging Luffy from the front, trying to make a barrier between the gun and the small boy.

The blast of the gun was heard, and after that, nothing. Nothing at all. He kept his eyes closed, but he could still feel Luffy shaking violently from beneath.

"ACE!"

It was weird, he couldn't feel anything at all, but he was sure he heard the explosion from the gun. He opened his eyes slowly and saw the top of the straw hat Luffy wore, patting it lightly, the kid turned his head up. His eyes were red and puffy, tears were rolling down his cheeks and he sniffed loudly. Ace smiled, he had known this kid for less than an hour and that alone had made him jump to protect him from death. Luffy was really something.

"Hey! You two, are you okay!"

Ace's ears perked up at the sound of a new voice. He turned around and the sight before him made him gasp. The man that just tried to kill Luffy was standing there; his eyes were wide open and his mouth was slightly parted. He had his gun pointing at them still, but there was something new on him, something that wasn't there before. A stain of blood spread rapidly from his chest, and then he fell to the ground. Ace could see someone standing at the entrance of the alley – a man that was holding a gun.

"Hey, kid, are you all –Luffy!"

Luffy poked his head from beneath Ace's arm after hearing his name, but Ace blocked his sight soon after, standing between the man and Luffy in a protective manner. He grabbed his pipe tightly and pointed it to the approaching man, forgetting for one moment that he had a gun in his hands. "Don't you dare hurt Luffy!" Ace growled, he was going to protect that boy by all means.

"Shanks!" Luffy appeared from behind Ace and dashed towards the man, hugging him with all his might while smiling brightly at the sight of their savior. "Shanks, you saved us!"

The man known as Shanks laughed heartily while he hugged the small boy. Tears could be seen at the corners of his eyes, but he wiped them out of sight before they managed to get out. He then turned his head to the staring Ace; since the moment Luffy jumped on him Ace had been standing still while watching the emotional sight flow before him. A wave of relief flowed on him after realizing he was in no more danger, but that feeling faded soon after only to be replaced with something he couldn't quite describe.

Ace knew that he should be happy for Luffy, he was finally reunited with his family; but that was not the case. He was happy because Luffy was safe, but a small pang of pain was left inside the boy's body, because he had finally found someone to talk to, to be around with; he had found someone he wanted to protect, he had a friend. But everything was meaningless now, Luffy would go back with his family and he would be alone once again.

So deep in thought Ace didn't notice how that Shanks guy had let go of Luffy, nor he noticed the moment that same man walked over to him and kneeled down to be at the same eye level. It was only after he felt some arms wrapped around him that he was brought back to his senses. Ace stood still for a moment, not knowing how to react; his eyes met the ones of a grinning Luffy on the background and he blushed. The younger boy was giving him a thumbs up, and he felt how a single tear rolled down his face.

Ace felt the grip on the older man loosen suddenly and he brushed away that tear before the man could see it. "Thank you so much for protecting Luffy." The man said now that he was staring at the boy. "I don't know how I could ever pay you for that."

Even after everything that night, Ace felt happy. He felt a small tug on the side of his jacket and saw a smiling Luffy looking at him. A small smile appeared on Ace's face as he patted the little boy. He was happy, Luffy had accepted him, and even that man that he didn't know acknowledged him. He wanted to shake his head and tell the man that it was okay; that he didn't need any payment because now he knew that Luffy was going to be okay. He tried to lift his gaze and smile to the man but a pain in his arm impeded him to do so. He started to feel his head light and blackness was spreading rapidly into his eyes.

The last thing he could see was the look of horror the man gave when he saw his wound. How could he forget that? He had lost some blood when he first met those guys and even after Luffy's help he never stopped bleeding. How could he not notice that for an hour at most, his arm had bled constantly?

It was okay, though, because no matter what happened to him, Luffy was safe. The only thing he regretted that night was that he was the cause of Luffy's anguish behind the last words he heard before he passed out.

"_ACE!"_

* * *

Aaaaand, that makes it. I don't really think chapter two will take too long to be posted, so be alert ;)

I hope you managed to guess who the bad guys were, I seriously tried my best to describe them as good as I could, and if you still didn't manage to recognize them, then that makes me a lousy person at describing things XD.

Hope you enjoyed reading this (long) prologue!

~nt'kit


	2. I

Warning: unbeta'ed.

I don't own Frankenstein, Mario Bros or One Piece

Author's ramblings at the bottom, so… enjoy!

* * *

**New House, New Life**

"Are you really sure about this, Ace?"

It was a beautiful morning; the sun was shining and the breeze was flowing ever so slightly. It was the perfect day to go outside and enjoy yourself doing nothing but to relax.

Inside one house of the small village that was not precisely the case. A young man placed the box he was holding at the bottom of the stairs and sighed contently. He brushed the inexistent dust from the back of his pants and turned his sight to the man that was standing before him while sending him a bright smile. The young man was wearing black, loose shorts that were being held in place by an orange belt with a big A in the buckle. He was wearing a faded orange button shirt – though none of the buttons were buttoned – which showed his well built body. His messy black hair was being held up in half a ponytail while some bangs fell into his forehead, framing nicely his handsome face. His eyes shrunk slightly due to the smile he was giving the other man, though a playful glint could be seen on them; and his childish freckles contrasted nicely with the mature aura the young man was emitting.

He walked toward the older man and gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder, "It's alright Shanks! There's no need to worry at all!"

The red haired man known as Shanks gave Ace a mortified look; he opened his mouth attempting to say something, but some hurrying steps on the stairs and a sudden crash beat him to it.

"Ow ow _ow_! Why is there a box at the bottom of the stairs! It could've killed me, you know!"

Ace and Shanks both sweat-dropped at the sight before them. A boy with messy black hair was lying on the ground face first with his butt sticking in the air. He rapidly stood up while he brushed clean his white boxers and rubbed his forehead into what promised to be a new bump. The scar that was usually seen under his left eye was now hiding under what seemed to be a speck of chocolate, and the usually bright smile that adorned the boy's face was now replaced with a scowl as he mumbled something about mysterious boxes and their evil intentions.

"I know you can take care of yourself just fine, it's _him_ I'm worried about!" Shanks blurted out as he pointed at the oblivious Luffy that was now sniffing the air; he _swore_ he smelled chocolate just now.

Ace sighed, he knew that dealing with Luffy was in a whole different level, but this decision was for the best. "I know, but you don't have to worry, I've lived with him long enough to know how to deal with him."

Shanks gave him a small smile, it was true though, out of everyone that knew Luffy, Ace was probably the closest person to the boy and the one who knew him best of all. But even though he knew that, Shank was unable to worry less for them. He gave a heavy sigh but smiled nonetheless. "I'll go get the boxes from the kitchen." He said before he disappeared into the next room.

"Hey, Ace, why do I smell chocolate?"

The older boy chuckled at the boy's naivety and walked towards him with an evil glint in his eyes. "Stupid Luffy," He said before grabbing the boy in a head lock and rubbing rather painfully his thumb against the boy's cheek. "I seriously don't know how the hell you eat to get chocolate stuck under your eye… There, all done. "

Luffy rubbed his cheek once Ace finally let go of him and gave his older brother a glare, though the glare went unnoticed by the freckled boy as he stared fixedly at the boy before him. "Luffy?" He said getting the boy's attention, a dust of pink tainting his cheeks. "Why aren't you wearing any clothes?"

Luffy grinned at the older boy while he crossed his arms over his bare chest proudly before answering. "You told me to pack all my clothes before we left, so I packed my shirt and pants too! I originally planned to pack my underwear, but then I thought it would be weird to walk around the street with no clothes on…"

Ace face-palmed, it was really unbelievable how dense his little brother could be. "I meant for you to pack the clothes on your wardrobe! Not _all_ your clothes, Luffy." Luffy watched how his brother rummaged through one of the boxes Luffy brought while still mumbling. "Seriously, of all the stupid things… Why would you even go half naked into the street?"

After a minute or so of searching, Ace finally found a shirt for Luffy; a red button down, short sleeved shirt. He threw it to the younger boy carelessly as he grabbed some blue shorts and tidied the box he just opened. Luffy stared at the shirt for a while before wearing it –without bothering to button it, and sat down at the bottom step of the stairs. "Hey! That's mean; Ace almost never wears a shirt in the house!" Luffy said after taking the blue shorts, eying his brother as he closed the box. "If you wear the shirt like that then it is as if you're not wearing any shirt at all!"

A vein popped on the forehead of the older boy at that statement, but he conformed with giving Luffy a nuggie in the head for the time being. "That's different, we're inside the house!" He said over the struggling Luffy. "I _will _button it up when we get out, and so will _you_."

"Yeah right." Luffy said playfully once he managed to get out of Ace's grasp, "Ace is a pervert~!"

A shade of pink tainted the older boy's cheeks as he gaped at the laughing Luffy, he had a sudden urge to pounce Luffy and hit him repeatedly on the head, but his murderous thoughts were soon put to an end when Shanks appeared from the kitchen. He mumbled something that the boys could not quite catch as he placed his cell phone on his pants pocket. "Stupid… now… busy… Asshole…"

"Shanks?" Ace called, gaining the red haired man's attention.

"Eh?" Said Shanks cleverly as he noticed that somehow he had ended at the stairs with the boys. He sighed, "My boss called, he wants me to go and get some papers at the office."

"Shanks always curse when his boss calls him." Luffy whispered quite loudly to Ace, making Ace nod and provoking a vein to pop on Shank's forehead. "You're boss is really strict, right? You should go before he yells at you."

"No, no; that stupid hawk won't yell," Shank said with a defeated sigh. "He just gives you one of his famous blood-freezing glares and makes you suffer silently and periodically with absurdly tiring jobs until he finds a new victim."

A shiver ran down the boy's spine at the memory of Shank's boss and both swore silently to never work for him.

"Well then," Shanks started once he got the keys to his car. "I'll get going. Once I get there and deliver those papers I'll be here to pick you up." He stopped at the front door of the small house and with a sigh he turned around. He knew this was useless, but it was just so hard to see them grow… "Are you really sure you want to move out?"

Ace and Luffy, taken by surprise, stared at the man in front of them for a moment before giving him two identical grins. "Shanks, we know you're worried, but everything is going to be okay." Luffy said kindly as he launched to the red haired man and attacked him with a glomp.

Ace smiled at the older man and said in a reassuring tone, "Ever since we were kids you guys had to take care of us even though your work made it near impossible. Garp was always at the office and you had to travel a lot, so Dadan had to deal with the hyperactive bundle of energy and me." Shanks smiled at the memory of those chaotic days but let Ace continue. "We all know that Dadan has always wanted to move to that house on top of the hill but never could because of us, so now that we can take care of ourselves we can let Dadan have her dream accomplished."

"Yeah!" Luffy said, finally losing his grip on Shanks. "Besides, we will be living near Makino's bar and a few blocks from school, and you can come and visit us anytime you want!"

"I don't travel that much now… Well, you're right, but…" Shanks said with a defeated sigh. "Ah! But how could I let go of such a cute, innocent little brat!" He said dramatically while giving Luffy a bone-breaking hug. "And what if Ace brings girls to his room! You could get any girl you want, Ace! And if Luffy walks into your room while you're having s-"

"SHANKS!" Ace yelled, his face resembling a tomato. "D-D-Don't be ridiculous!"

"But! You're really good-looking Ace! Remember last Valentines when we found that girl hidden in your closet? And there were about ten other girls hiding outside the house~!" Ace cringed at the memory, that had been one scary Valentine. "And Luffy too! When those girls nearly kidnapped you after school so they could go on a date with you!" Luffy paid no mind to Shanks words, mostly because he was struggling to get out of his hug-of-doom; Ace, on the other hand, tried to suppress a growl as he remembered how some guys at school had tried to rape his little brother after classes ended. Of course no one ever knew of that incident, and the guys he beat up were too scared to utter a word.

"Shanks… I can't breathe…"

"Oh, sorry." Shanks said while letting go of Luffy, the latter clinging to his older brother as he coughed and took desperate gasps of breath. "Well… I'll just go and send that stuff; I'll be back in about an hour to pick you up so bring everything down already." He said with a resigned sigh as he opened the door. "If you change your mind, call me immediately."

Once Shanks was finally gone, both boys smiled, they knew it would be a little hard to live by themselves, but they would definitely manage. "Let's get what's left downstairs." Ace told his little brother. The youngest nodded and headed upstairs with a wide grin, his brother following closely behind.

It took them ten minutes to finally get everything down. There was not a single object left that was not in a box, and said boxes were placed neatly near the front door, waiting patiently to get on Shank's car and head to their new home. Luffy and Ace stood silent for a while, both staring at the now empty house as they recalled all their childhood memories. Every time they broke anything valuable while in one of their rampage attacks and got Dadan mad, or how they would run and hide whenever Garp came to visit his grandsons causing even more damage to the valuables of the house; every memory made in that house would always be present in their hearts, because they would never forget what they learnt there, but it was time to make a new start.

Without warning whatsoever, Luffy turned around and headed to the stairs taking Ace by surprise. "Luffy?" He called, not really expecting his brother to be so gloomy.

"I'm gonna say good bye to my room." Luffy said with a bright smile and resumed once again his steps. Ace stared for a moment where his brother had been just a second ago before smiling; he should say good bye to his room too.

Ace climbed the stairs with heavy steps, he turned to his right and saw Luffy's bedroom door closed; his door, which was next to Luffy's, was wide open on the other hand. He stepped into the empty room and closed the door behind him before leaning on it. A sigh escaped his lips as he walked through the wooden floor, there was nothing left there except for his old mattress. Most of his best memories had been at this very room, whenever he was not playing outside he would be in this room with Luffy, plotting their next prank on Dadan or Shanks – Garp being out of the question since last time they played a trick on him they had ended cleaning his office for a whole week; Garp's Fist of Love was included in the package.

A sudden knock on the door interrupted Ace's musings, and without even waiting for an answer the younger D. entered the room and walked straight to the empty mattress; sitting down and watching gleefully the empty room.

"What the… Luffy?" Ace called with a surprised tone. "I thought you were going to say good-bye to your room?"

Luffy let his gaze fall on Ace before he gave him a big smile and laid his back on the mattress. "I'm done already." The older D. looked skeptically at the boy but stood silent, waiting for an explanation that came soon after. "Most of my best memories are in your room, Ace; I spent most of my time here."

A smile appeared into Ace's face, "Yeah, when we were still kids you would come and sleep here almost every night; you were such a cry-baby Luffy."

A blushing Luffy sat up sharply while opening and closing his mouth repeatedly. "I-I was not!" He said stubbornly as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I-I only felt lonely okay? And you know I've never liked storms either!"

Ace laughed loudly after his little brother's statement. It was true, soon after Ace started to live with the boy he noticed how almost every night Luffy would go to his room in and spend the night there. It was quite difficult for Ace at the beginning, he wasn't used on having someone who depended so much on him, but soon after, every time he heard his door open he would simply pull up the covers and wait for Luffy to join him. It was nice to sleep with him, especially since Luffy was the cuddling type, but as Luffy grew up he would come less and less at night – much to Ace's relief – and instead spend the day at Ace's room.

"Hey, Ace," Luffy called his older brother with a wide grin. "Do you remember _that?_"

Ace turned his head toward the spot Luffy was pointing; a dark stain that was above Ace's head. A smirk made its way to the freckled boy's face as he recalled the memory of that day. "How could I forget! We planned to go camping for weeks and a stupid storm got in the way." Ace chuckled lightly, his eyes never leaving the spot on the ceiling.

"Yeah, and you thought it would be a good idea to have our camping day indoors instead…" Luffy said with a giggle, because now that he thought about it he realized just how stupid they had been.

"Ah, that's right…" Ace said. "Dadan was really pissed when she found out we made a fire in my room…"

The younger D. laughed freely at the comment before deciding to tease his brother a little further. "Ace is so stupid! How could you drag lil' innocent me into such a silly idea!"

Luffy's laughter filled the room, and Ace smiled kindly at the sight of his little brother in such a happy bliss. Had it not been that the boy was laughing openly _at _him while pointing shamelessly, Ace wouldn't have minded the childish laugh of his brother. With a mischievous glint in his eyes, the older D. walked towards Luffy in an almost predatory way, ready to jump on Luffy and give him a tickling attack. He was just in front of the boy, and as soon as he gave his last step, a narcoleptic fit attacked the unsuspecting Ace, making him fall face first and – conveniently – on top of Luffy.

"Wah-!" Luffy fell back into the mattress with a soft thump as he struggled to get the older boy off of him. "For God's sake, Ace! You sleep through the most random places!" He mumbled as he flailed his free hand in the air.

After several failed attempts to get Ace off of him, Luffy resigned to move the boy anymore and proceeded to poke him in the head with the hope that he would miraculously wake up. Something in the corner of his eyesight caught Luffy's attention nonetheless; he turned his head to the side and there it was: the black marker Ace had used to label the boxes. With a mischievous plan already forming in his head, the boy stretched his arm as far as he could, trying with all his might to get the marker without waking Ace up. Luffy tried to ignore the tickling sensation of Ace's breath on his neck, he needed concentration right now or his prank wouldn't be accomplished.

Too focused on getting the marker, Luffy didn't notice how Ace's breathing had changed its pace; the tips of his fingers had already touched the marker. After blinking a few times, Ace realized that not only had he fallen asleep, but he was also on top of something soft that was certainly not his bed. He blinked a few more times and his eyesight finally adjusted to its surroundings. Realization struck him hard and painfully, as he noticed that what was under him was in fact his little brother, his lips were merely inches away from the boy's neck, and the intoxicating vanilla scent that the boy was emitting was enough to drive Ace's sanity out of the window. He had to muster all of his self control to prevent himself on kissing and biting on that smooth neck.

Ace lifted his head up slightly just in time to see his little brother turn his head toward him. A few seconds passed before he realized that their faces were so close that if he just leaned slightly forward he could kiss senselessly the boy.

A vibrant red took possession of Ace's face, as he jerked himself off Luffy and rolled ungracefully from the bed and to the ground. "Ah… Wh-… I… Uh…" He stammered, evading looking at the younger D. directly into the eyes.

Ace knew he loved Luffy more than a brother should, but those were some feelings that were best repressed. He knew Luffy would never feel the same way as he did, and what he feared the most was Luffy's disgusted look if he ever found out; Ace wouldn't be able to live on knowing that the person he loved the most hated him.

He had been aware of this feeling for so long now… he wasn't sure how it started, but from the moment that boy smiled to him the first time in that alley he wasn't able to get him off of his mind. Ace was too young to understand why he would be so angry whenever Garp hit Luffy with his 'Fist of Love', or why whenever he saw Luffy sad, he had this urgent feeling to kill the responsible of it; of what he was sure was that no matter what, he would always protect Luffy, because seeing him happy was Ace's happiness as well. But things couldn't stay that way forever.

When Ace hit puberty he started to notice Luffy more than ever; whenever Luffy came to his bed at night and cuddled with him Ace would feel his stomach turn and flutter and heat would rise to his face considerably fast. He started to feel uncomfortable with the boy in the same bed as him, so when Luffy got older and decided to sleep in his own bed a wave of relief spread throughout Ace's body.

But things just got worse as time passed by. Ace would now have strange dreams, dreams that involved his brother and him. It had been weird to be near the boy from there on, he needed something to distract him from the cute little boy.

He needed a girlfriend.

But not just any girlfriend, Ace would get the prettiest girl in school to forget about Luffy for once and for all. It wasn't difficult to spot said girl because every time she would walk near any of the guys they would immediately start to drool. This girl –Alvida, as a friend of his had told him, had long, silky black hair, although not as smooth and beautiful as Luffy's; her eyes gave off a look of superiority that demanded respect unlike Luffy's, which emitted a playful, adorable glint that just made you want to hug him. Admittedly, her body surpassed those of the other girls at school; she was lean, with long legs and fair skin.

In Ace's opinion, this girl was nowhere as perfect as Luffy, but she seemed to be the best he could manage at such a dire moment.

It was rather difficult to approach this Alvida girl with all those horny boys around her, but somehow he had managed to ask her out one morning when he bumped into her in one of the hallways of the school.

From there on, they started to see each other frequently, and it was just a matter of time before the whole school found out about the relationship those two had. It seemed they were the hottest couple at school, and according to Ace's friends, he was the luckiest man on earth. Everything was going according to plan, Alvida was the kind of girl that demanded attention, leaving Ace with no choice but to see her almost every day after school. He thought this was a good thing, because less time at home meant less time with Luffy. There was just one problem with his plan, Luffy noticed that Ace spent more time with that girl rather than with him, and he was not going to let some intruder steal Ace from him. The little boy traced a plan in his head, a plan that he thought would be absolutely successful.

Ace always came home to eat after school, it would be after that that Alvida called the boy to go out, so Luffy had about forty minutes with Ace to make his plan work. The younger D. came home and soon after Ace came too, "Is my little heartbreaker going out today again?" Was Garp's welcoming.

To Luffy's delight, it seemed that Ace's girlfriend had caught a cold and they wouldn't see each other outside school until she got better. With a new plan forming in his head already, Luffy devoured his food in an amazing speed, and excused himself. He dashed to his room, grabbed his favorite red hoodie and looked frantically for the tickets his friend Usopp had given him some days before.

After a couple of minutes Luffy heard the door besides his room close. He smiled brightly after finding what he was looking for at the base of his untidy school bag and went over to Ace's room. He opened the door without even bothering to knock first and saw Ace lying in his bed while reading some book; Luffy grinned evilly and charged toward the freckled boy, launching at him before Ace had time to react.

"Let's go to the amusement park, Ace!" Luffy had said from his position on top of Ace taking the older boy by surprise. It took Luffy fifteen minutes of whining and pouting to finally convince Ace, and after he grabbed a jacket and some money, both boys went to the amusement park.

It had been a wonderful day. Not a single thought of Alvida crossed his mind, and Luffy made sure to get in every single ride with Ace. The freckled boy had amazed Luffy with his throwing skills before getting Luffy a cute plushie of a blue, baby whale, and Luffy had managed to get two free ice creams for his brother and himself, Ace dragged Luffy away from that woman's sight soon after.

The day ended with an exhausted Luffy sleeping soundlessly on Ace's back as he carried the little boy to the house, the whale Luffy had never leaving his grasp.

The day after, Ace had planned to take Luffy to the zoo, he had such a great time with the boy at the park that he finally noticed how much he missed spending time with him, but a smiling Alvida walking towards him in the school shattered his idea soon after. The woman had recovered, and it seemed that she wished to go out with Ace to do some shopping.

That same day had been hell to Ace, not only was his mind somewhere else, but every time they entered a new shop he would have to restrain himself from buying something for Luffy. Ace was bored, he didn't' want to spend any more time with Alvida, and so, as soon as he got to his house he decided to break up with her when they meet again.

It was a Sunday afternoon which meant no school for the boys. Alvida had called Ace in the morning and Ace asked to see her that day to talk with her; she would go to Ace's house in a moment or so.

Ace had traced a plan in his head already; she would ask her to go to the Ice Cream parlor that was close to her house and break up with her over there. Easy, right? He decided to take a quick shower before Alvida came, but it seemed that she appeared in the house earlier than expected, and to his misfortune, Luffy was the only one around at the time.

"Who are you?" Luffy said after attending the door. He didn't like the woman outside the door, she seemed to look down on him.

"Where is Ace?"

Luffy frowned, this must be the girl that took Ace away from him. "He's taking a shower." Came the cold reply from the glaring boy.

Alvida scoffed, but didn't move nonetheless. "Well, aren't you going to tell me to come in?"

Luffy stuck out his tongue childishly at the woman before crossing his arms. "No, I don't like you, you ugly woman."

The response had come as a shock to Alvida, no one had ever said such offending words to her. She, ugly? Every guy that looked at her would simply drool and beg for a date, but it seemed this boy was not the case. He was the first guy ever to dislike her, he was a challenge…

…And she liked challenges.

Ace came just in time to stop Luffy from offending the woman some more, as much as he knew he would enjoy it. He told Luffy to get inside and that he would be home early before getting outside with the still shocked woman. "Who… Who was that?" Alvida asked in something more than a whisper.

Ace frowned, he knew pretty well that If Alvida decided to insult his little brother he would close the door in her face, "Luffy, my little brother." He said coldly.

Alvida just nodded and stared at the door some more time, her eyes showed a glint Ace couldn't quite decipher, but something told him that whatever it was, it was nothing good. "You said there was something you needed to tell me." She said, not even bothering to look at Ace. "What is it?"

Ace was taken aback; he didn't expect to tell her that on his house mostly because he didn't know how Alvida would react, he thought it was safer to break up with her near her house. "Uh… why don't we go to the ice-cream parlor and talk over there?" He offered, but Alvida just shook her head, her eyes now resting in Ace.

"Fine." He sighed, "You see, I… don't really feel the way I should feel when I'm with you, I mean… I don't feel particularly excited when I'm about to see you, and I guess that's not okay, you know? So I don't want to hurt you by pretending I feel something I don't, I hope you understand…" His words trailed off after seeing the calm look in Alvida, he hadn't expected that at all.

"It's okay," She started. "Because I think there's someone else I like, and it's not precisely you, Ace."

Ace's eye twitched after noticing how Alvida's eyes stared at the door of his house. This couldn't be…

"So, does Luffy have a girlfriend?"

Something inside Ace broke. She was asking about Luffy, _his_ little brother! How dare she! But things just got worse after that, Alvida would now appear in their usual route to school, which meant that not only did she shamelessly harassed Luffy, but she still had the nerve to talk with him _and_ give him her home-made bento boxes.

Thank God for his obliviousness.

Ace's hell ended along with the end of school year, Alvida would transfer to a school at the north which meant no more bentos and –thankfully- no more Alvida.

Ace shrugged at the memory; that had certainly been something he didn't wish to revive. He felt a light weight lift from his legs and saw a grinning Luffy toss the black marker he used to label the boxes to the side. "Shank's is here!" He said happily before rushing out of Ace's room.

Ace sighed, he headed to where Luffy had dashed and was received by a wide-eyed Shanks as he coughed to hide an obvious laugh. "Well hello there Ace-kun, I guessed you had one of your sleeping fits, right?"

Ace cocked his eyebrow at the snickering pair in front of him, how did he know he fell asleep?

"Ace can sleep with his eyes open now!" Luffy all but yelled at the laughing Shanks.

Sleep with his eyes open? What was Luffy talking about? He touched his face, expecting to feel some paper or whatever that had stuck in his face, only to find the tips of his fingers stained black. Ace suddenly remembered the marker Luffy threw ups stairs and a vein popped on his forehead.

"Really, Luffy, those glasses look really good, and that connecting the dots stuff with his freckles… is that a star?"

Connecting the dots? What the hell? Ace dashed into the bathroom to take a good look at himself in the mirror, only to realize that it was already in their new home. "Sorry Ace! You'll have to wait a bit longer!" Came Shanks happy reply from the front door.

Ace sighed before banging his head repeatedly in the wall, why, of all the moments, did he have a narcoleptic fit in front of Luffy?

He grumbled incoherently before getting some boxes roughly and placing them in Shanks car. He took a quick glance in the side mirror to finally see Luffy's artwork. He had a stitched scar across his forehead, resembling something like a living Frankenstein, and his eyebrows had suddenly converted into one; he was wearing odd shaped glasses and had a bushy, Mario Bros. style mustache adorning his handsome face. A goatee beard was now in his chin and his freckles were now all connected in a weird way, although Luffy had managed to create something that resembled oddly like a connect-the-dots-star on his left cheek.

"Do you like it?" Was Luffy's happy comment as he passed by the frowning Ace. "I think my drawing skills have improved."

"You still need practice." Ace replied as he tried to rub off the offending black ink.

"So mean…" Luffy pouted. He walked over to the house and grabbed some more boxes; it was only a matter of minutes before they finally placed all the boxes in the car.

"Well, let's go." Came Shanks reply from inside the car. Ace got himself in the passenger seat while Luffy sat directly behind Ace, his face sticking out of the window as he watched his old house fade away. "Garp called me while at work, he said that he already settled some of the stuff the moving truck sent earlier into your house, and that he'll come back first thing tomorrow to help you with whatever's left." Shanks saw how Ace nodded absentmindedly as he tried to rub off the Frankenstein-like scar.

"I thought he would come today." Luffy said as he popped his head between the front seats.

"He said an emergency occurred at work, or something like that." Luffy nodded. "And, I'll need to go back to work too after I drop you at your new home." Shanks finished with a scowl.

"Back to work?" Wondered Ace out loud, he had somehow erased half of the scar. "I thought you were done already."

Shanks mumbled something the boys couldn't understand as he parked the car in the wide parking lot of the condominium. It was rather big, about ten stories tall. From what could be seen at the front it seemed as if two identical buildings had been placed one after the other, being divided only by the large staircase placed in the middle. The building itself had a nice feeling to it, a homely kind of feeling.

The three guys walked to the front gate and Ace took out his new set of keys before placing the metallic strip the landlord had given him earlier under a scanner. They heard a soft clicking noise from the gate and soon after Shanks was able to push open the gate and hold it in place with one of the boxes he brought.

"So cool!" Luffy gawked as he stared at the strip in Ace's hands.

"Oh yeah, you'll have one too, Luffy, the landlord said to go early tomorrow to get it." Ace grabbed a folded note in his pants before saying out loud, "We're on the third floor, condo number 4."

"Well, this place has my approval." Shanks said while going back to the car and getting out more boxes. "It seems secure enough and you can see Makino's bar from here."

Ace and Luffy smiled at Shanks comment, seemed he was finally accepting the fact that they were moving out. The boys went over to the car and grabbed as many boxes as they could, they wanted to make just one trip from the car to the new house, and after several attempts to get everything in their hands, they managed to get into condo #4 with only a few bumps.

Ace opened the door after dropping several boxes and many curses were thrown to the wind, but all that struggle was worth it after seeing the inside of their new home.

It was relatively small compared to Dadan's home, but for Ace and for Luffy, it was perfect. The living room was now decorated with some furniture, a couch that Dadan had given them as a moving out gift which was placed in front of the television Shanks and Garp had given the kids. A small table was placed in between them and several boxes were scattered across the room. The kitchen, which was at the right side of the room, was already packed with the necessary equipment such as an oven, microwave, and a new refrigerator, courtesy of Makino. There was a large breakfast bar connecting the inside of the kitchen with the rest of the house, and a small bathroom with just a toilet and a sink at the bottom of the stairs.

Luffy, without sparing the bottom of the house a second glance, dashed upstairs in order to claim a room. "Yosh!" He said in a really loud voice. "This is my room!"

Shanks laughed while following the younger D. upstairs, Ace mumbled something about foolish kids, but a smile could be evidently seen in his face. The second floor of the condominium was simple. There was a small hallway that connected two rooms, one aside from the other, and at the other end of the corridor was a door that led to a full bathroom.

Ace walked into his new room to find out that the beds were already there, along with his side table and the desk where his laptop, lamp and books would normally reside. He sighed contently at the sight, and walked calmly to the window that was placed directly besides his bed, offering a beautiful view of the small village.

"Gramps also settled your room!" Luffy said form the door, startling Ace for a moment. "Most of my stuff is in my room too, but I can't find the chair of my work table…"

"Luffy! I found it!"

"Ah, Shanks found it!"

Ace chuckled a bit and walked to where his brother was standing, he gave the boy a small hug by the shoulders before leading him to the hallway. "So, do you like our new home?"

Luffy nodded enthusiastically, passing his arm behind Ace's back and hugging him by the waist, making a small blush appear on Ace's cheeks. "Yep, and I promise I'll help with the cleaning this time!"

"You better!" Ace answered while ruffling the younger boy's hair affectionately.

The brothers headed downstairs with the resolution to start unpacking everything only to find Shanks placing the last boxes at the middle of the room. "Well boys, I need to go." He said before stretching a little bit. "It seems Mihawk didn't like the fact that I was late and decided to torture me by giving me incredibly stupid tasks."

Ace and Luffy gave a step back after feeling the killing aura that Shanks was emitting. "It… It's okay, Shanks! Right, Luffy?"The older boy said with an apologetic smile, Luffy nodded enthusiastically besides him.

"Yeah! You can come tomorrow with gramps to see the house tidier!"

Shanks gave a small smile before heading off; of course, a colorful vocabulary was could be heard on his way to the car.

The brothers stared absentmindedly at the boxes before sighing, sadly enough they wouldn't unpack themselves. After discussing it for a minute, they decided to unpack the kitchen utensils first, and after almost three hours they had managed to arrange almost everything. They headed to the living room next, placing the lamps, movies, books and games in their respective places, along with some cushions for the couch and a rug under the table.

Ace headed towards the first floor bathroom while Luffy finished arranging the living room, but a sudden ring from the intercom caught their attention. "I'll get it!" Luffy all but yelled as he jumped towards his new doorbell, obviously excited about using such an interesting object for the first time. "Who is it?" He asked in a singsong voice while pressing the required button, soon after, the image of a blond man with a bored expression appeared in the monitor of the intercom, and before he could even open his mouth, Luffy opened the gate for him, urging him to pass and telling him which floor and room they were on.

"Who is it?" Ace asked from the bathroom, poking his head out just in time to see his little brother opening the door and tapping his foot on the floor in a desperate fashion.

"Marco!" He said happily, turning his head towards the staircase in hopes of seeing the blond man. "Oi Marco! Hurry up would ya!"

A grunt was heard from the stairs before the blond man appeared on the hallway, "You're an impatient kid aren't you?" He said before grabbing Luffy by the neck and dragging him to his house. "Yo, Ace!"

"Marco! What brings you here?" Ace asked with a big smile after watching his best friend bully his little brother. Out of every man he knew, Marco was the only one he trusted enough to be around Luffy without having any weird intentions; not to mention that no matter how clingy his little brother could be towards him – or any other person for that matter – Ace couldn't bring himself to be jealous of the blond man.

"Man, what a pretty house…" Marco said, finally letting go of Luffy while inspecting the house with a low whistle. "I came to tell you that Pops says that you can take today off, he says he doesn't want to see you thinking Luffy got the house on fire while you're at work _("Hey! I would never do that!")_, and since tomorrow's Sunday, you can finish this before the new school term begins."

Ace laughed, his boss had never met Luffy, but Ace couldn't help himself and talk non-stop about the cute little boy that there was not a single person at his work that didn't know about Luffy. Ace worked for Edward Newgate, the most powerful man in the Grand Line. He had the biggest car manufacturing company in the world, Whitebeard Co., with most of the market under his power. Admittedly, every worker respected Newgate in unimaginable ways, he would take in every person as long as he or she proved to be trustworthy, and so was the relationship between them that he dared call his employees his sons, as all of them would call him as their father. Ace started to work in that company a little over a year ago, he had planned to move out with Luffy and let Dadan have the house she always wanted, and Whitebeard – as most people would call him – accepted him as his worker when no one else did for him being still a student.

He would always look for the sake of his sons, and Ace was truly grateful to him. "He knows me well, doesn't he?" Ace asked from the door frame of the bathroom. "Tell Pops I say thank you, and that I'll work hard on Monday."

Marco smiled lazily before dismissing himself, telling Ace he expected an invitation once the house arrangements were done.

"What about you, Luffy?" Ace asked suddenly, once again going to his task of tidying the bathroom. "Did you talk with Shakky?"

"Yep," Luffy nodded. "She told me to help you with the house, otherwise she would feel guilty for making you work all alone."

Ace grinned at the comment, Shakky and Ace had met a few days after Luffy started to work with her and quickly became attached to both D. brothers. "Well then, tell Shakky she's welcome here anytime she wants to visit."

Shakky was the owner of a bar located a few blocks away from their school; the moment Ace told Luffy he had gotten himself a job so that they could move out, the younger boy went to find a job too almost immediately, he wouldn't let his brother handle all the burden of a new house. Luffy had somehow met an old man while looking for a good place to ask for a job. They had bumped each other in the street and, the man finding Luffy quite interesting, invited him for some coffee. It seemed that that man, Rayleigh, had met Garp some time ago, and after finding out that Luffy needed a job to help his brother with the house they planned to buy, he offered to escort him to the bar of a friend of his who needed a part-time worker for the afternoons.

Luffy had accepted immediately (God bless his oblivious and trustworthy self) and headed to said bar with Rayleigh.

Shakky, the owner of Shakky's Rip-Off Bar, hired Luffy that same day mostly because she needed someone immediately, but after knowing the kid some more she grew fond of him and his cheerful personality. He would come and work after school and serve only in the afternoon, because Shakky had found it too dangerous for such a cute kid to work at night in a place where drunken, perverted men would usually hang out.

"There, all done." Ace said proudly before walking into the living room, where Luffy was currently struggling with the cables of the DVD player. "…The hell are you doing?"

Luffy turned his head up and pouted. "I can't connect the DVD player…"

Ace turned his head to the side in order to prevent a nosebleed because of the cute sight his little brother was giving him. He disguised his embarrassment with a cough before taking the DVD from Luffy and helping him get untangled from the lucky wires. They stayed at that room settling every single detail until nighttime finally came and a rumbling from Luffy's stomach brought them back to reality.

Ace got up and stretched a little before turning his head to Luffy. "I'll make some snack for the meantime." Luffy's face lit at the comment, his rumbling stomach backing up his point.

He headed to the kitchen and smiled, he liked the idea of being the owner of said kitchen, and the sense of responsibility it brought him seemed almost too good to be true. He took out some plates and after realizing he didn't know what to make, headed back to the living room. Apron on already. "Oi Luffy, what would you like to…" His words died in his throat after seeing the cute sight before him.

Ace smiled lovingly at the sleeping Luffy who was curled in one side of the couch, a small trail of drool coming out of the corner of his mouth. He grabbed a blanket from one of the scattered boxes before taking a seat next to the sleeping Luffy; Ace grabbed gently the sleeping boy from the shoulders and positioned Luffy next to him so that the blanket could cover them both. He stroked absentmindedly the soft hair of Luffy while thinking in nothing in particular, and soon enough, he too was called to the sweet land of dreams.

* * *

Do you know the kind of chapters that are only there in order for you to understand the story? Well, this is one of them. I'm sorry! I know this chappie was a bit boring, but it was necessary so that you could understand the story later on… please hang on a bit more, next chapter will be more exciting than this one…! I promise!

On the bright side, it was pretty long… right?

Anyway! I've seen many authors who take their time to express their gratitude to their reviews, and I think it's a really nice thing to do, because seriously guys, you have no idea how happy your reviews, alerts and favs make me :')

So… review replying time! (yay!)

**Sdfsdfasdasd**, Haha, I had to copy-paste your name! Yeah, they are Jango and Kuro, I haven't read that arc in a long time either, but I wanted to make the first villains someone unexpected… I wonder if it worked… And thank you so much! You made my day with your compliments! Hope you enjoyed this action-lacking chapter!

**eternitybeckons**, Thank you so much! I originally planned to make Axe-Hand Morgan the first villain since he was one of the first bad guys, but I thought it would be weird to have a guy with an axe persecuting some kids… I hope you liked this chapter, and I promise to make it more interesting in chapter 3.

**Saskie**, Yes! They were Jango and Kuro! Haha, here's next chapter (kind of late but… it's better than never, right?), hope you enjoyed it.

**AlzeahXei**, You make me blush… haha, thank you! I know, there aren't many AcexLuffy stories… sadly enough…

**Luffy95**, Thank you so much! And I'm sorry, this wasn't really soon enough, but I tried to make it long!

**Voquo**, …. Please don't cry… Hahah thank you so much! I know, I seriously thought of just making them bad guys without some uh… perverted thoughts, but… they needed to have something really _really_ bad. The good thing is that Ace was there to protect Luffy and beat them up! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

**WindGoddess Rune**, Thank you! I'm happy you liked it. And yes, Ace _had _to have the chance of beating them for treating Luffy like that!

**LolyGothica**, Thank you! I'm glad you liked last chapter, and even though there was no action in this chapter, there will be soon enough!

**animechick57**, Thank you! And here's next chapter! (I know, Luffy's just so adorable…!)

**Viero D. Eclipse**, Thanks! I'm sorry it wasn't soon enough, but it was a long chapter! Haha, I hope you enjoyed it!

**hilian**, Thank you! I'm glad you liked it, and yes, I do think Ace is cute too!

**DoomedUnicorn**, Thank you! Here's next chapter, hope you enjoyed it!

You guys seriously made me so happy! Free Chopperman plushies to you all!

See you next chapter!

~nt'kit


	3. II

**I re-uploaded this chapter since there seemed to be some problems, sorry for the inconvinience.**

Um… Hi?

I know, I know…! It took me too damn long to update, but my computer broke, and I had use my sister's laptop to do my homework, but she had to use it too… Then I finally got mine back but I was in exams… it was truly a mess. You have no idea how much I suffered with homework's and final projects… But my laptop is back to normal once again, and I'm finally free of school, meaning I'll have more time to write!

I tried to make this chapter long as an apology… yeah, I know, lame XD

Anyway, I won't bore you anymore with my excuses, once again, I'm really sorry for the late update, and I hope you enjoy!

Warnings: unbeta'ed, cursing, drunkenness…

I own nothing but the plot.

By the way, there's something **Eyalane **pointed out and I never mentioned, silly me haha! Ace and Luffy's ages are the same as in the manga/anime before the time skip! Sorry, my bad XD

* * *

**And It All Started**

An annoying ringing echoed through the small complex breaking the peaceful silence that was set within it. Ace groaned, he was having a nice dream about his favorite little idiot when the stupid ringing woke him up. He turned around out of habit only to fall face first into the floor. Ace mumbled some incoherent curses; he had forgotten he fell asleep on a couch.

"Make it stop…" Luffy moaned from that same couch, he grabbed the nearest cushion and covered his face with it.

Ace groggily stood up, dragging his feet through the wooden floor before stopping in front of the intercom. He lifted a hand lazily and pressed the required button so that he could see whoever was stupid enough to wake him up. "What?" He snapped.

"_BWAHAHAHAHA!"_

Ace cringed visibly after hearing that laugh that he knew a little too well.

"_Sorry kiddo, did I wake you up? Well whatever, let your grandpa in!"_

"Please let this be a nightmare…." Ace heard Luffy mumble from under the cushion and couldn't help but to agree silently. He turned to the small screen, but luck wasn't with him as he saw that Garp was still standing there with a wide, stupid grin.

"Why the hell are you here so early?"Ace asked, hoping with all his might that the old man would just come by to say hi and leave immediately.

"_Ah well, I woke up early to go and work, but then I remembered that Sengoku told us that today they will be remodeling the office, meaning I have all day to myself,"_ A vein throbbed in Ace's temple. _"So I came by to say hi to my beloved grandsons and spend the entire day with you two! A wonderful proposal don't you think? BWAHAHA!"_

He had a sudden urge to bang his head repeatedly against the wall until he lost consciousness, but a groaning Luffy interrupted him from doing so. "Ignore gramps and come sleep with me, Ace…"

Ace froze, he could interpret that in _so_ many ways… suddenly the head-banging sounded even more tempting. He pressed the button quickly and let Garp in before his hormones took control of him and he jumped into a sleepy Luffy. Seriously, of all the things to say…! Ace knew that Luffy didn't mean those words in that way but… damn his oblivious, innocent mind…

A sudden knock interrupted the freckled boy from his internal turmoil. He went to the door quite reluctantly, and after heaving a sigh, he opened it only to be greeted by a smiling Garp with his arms wide open. "Give your grandpa a hug!"

Ace stared for a while before turning away, mumbling something about stupid old men and their stupid brain-damage, leaving a sulking Garp on the door. "It's _Sunday_ grandpa! Let us sleep!" Luffy said from the couch as he threw some cushion randomly into the air making it land successfully at Garp's feet.

"Nonsense!" He snapped, grabbing the cushion and slamming it into Luffy's face with enough force to create a new bump on his forehead. "If you want to be officials like me there's no time for you to be lazy!"

"Don't hit Luffy, you deranged old nutcase!" Ace yelled from the door, quickly dashing into the living room and grabbing a cushion himself before hitting Garp repeatedly on the head.

"We don't want to be officials!" Luffy said behind Ace, grabbing a cushion too and joining Ace in his attack against his grandpa.

A twitch made itself present on Garp's right eye as he took the blows his grandsons were giving him without as much as a flutter. Then he snapped. "How dare you hit your grandpa, you morons!" He said as his fist connected painfully with both heads. "And you'll be officials and make me proud!"

"Don't decide that on your own!"

"My, you three are really lively this morning."

All three heads turned to the door to find the owner of that voice; a huge grin made its way to the younger D. "Makino!" He yelled before leaping out of Garp's grasp and into the smiling woman at the entrance of his home. "How did you get here?"

"She came with me." Answered Garp, taking a seat on the couch as he inspected the house quietly.

Makino nodded happily before closing the door behind her. "Garp-san visited the bar before coming here, but I was talking with your neighbors just now." She said as Ace took the bags she was holding and placed them in the kitchen. "They are really nice people, Conis-san and Pagaya-san. Have you met them yet?"

"Nope." Ace answered from the kitchen. "We haven't met anyone yet, ah, well except for Crocus-san, the condominium landlord. Luffy, we need to go with him later today to pick up your keys."

Luffy nodded, then proceeded to walk to where Ace had placed Makino's bags. He glanced at the contents inside of them before a big smile appeared on his face. "Are you gonna cook here, Makino?"

"Yep, I knew you two wouldn't be awake when Garp-san came over, hence you wouldn't have had breakfast."

All three D's cheered as Makino walked to the kitchen with her usual gentle smile, they would be having a nice breakfast today. "Well then, I'm gonna take a shower." Ace said as he headed to the stairs, he then turned his head around and glared at the other D's. "I expect you two to behave, and when I'm done this place has to be exactly as it is now, understood?"

Both Garp and Luffy took a soldier stand, placing their hand over their forehead as they yelled in unison. "Yes, sir!"

"Good." Ace said, climbing up the stairs. "Makino-san, I'm counting on you!"

Garp and Luffy stood still, their soldier pose still on as they watched Ace disappear. "Alright kiddo, show grandpa your bedroom."Garp said with a wide grin that strongly resembled the one Luffy was showing. "Have you finished unpacking already?"

"No, Ace and I spent all day tidying the living room and the kitchen; I think the bathroom's done too."Luffy said as he led his grandpa to his room. "Our rooms are all that's left now."

"Ah, I see," Garp said, standing at the entrance of Luffy's room and finding it slightly different than when he came yesterday to place the beds. "Well then, let's start with your wardrobe, shall we?"

Luffy nodded and gathered all the boxes that had the words '_Luffy's clothes'_ on them. He wasn't really excited about the whole tidying you room thing – he would rather stay in the kitchen while trying to steal some food from Makino – but he had promised Ace that he would help in the house, and the faster he did this, the faster he could finally rest.

The familiar ringing echoed through the house once more after a couple of minutes, and before Luffy could get up and downstairs, the happy voice of Makino interrupted him from doing so. "I'll get it!" She said before getting to the intercom and pressing the required button. "Yes? Oh, Dadan! Please come in!" She said before opening the gate and letting the rough woman in.

"Who was it?"

Makino turned around just to see a wet Ace standing at the top of the staircase, drying his hair with some towel and wearing only some sweat-pants. There was a woman in the house, of course he wouldn't be on his boxers. "Dadan, she did say she wanted to see this place so you could get her approval."

As soon as those words left Makino's mouth, there was a knock on the door – to which Makino attended, and a grumpy woman entered the house. Her sturdy form and the frown on her face combined would have been enough to scare away whoever crossed her path, but for the people standing there this was nothing but her usual self. "I don't like your neighbors," Dadan told Ace, as she walked right to the small living room. "They look too wimpy for their age."

"No, you're just too tough, you old hag."

"Ah, Dadan, don't you think this place is really nice for the boys?" Makino interrupted, knowing far too well that if those two continued with their argument the house was bound to get damaged.

Dadan turned around and stared at the house, taking in every single detail with a flick of her tongue. "Whatever is good as long as I can get those brats away from me."

Ace smirked; the temptation to tease Dadan was getting stronger by the second. "What's that? Weren't you the one holding back her tears some days ago when Luffy and I started packing?" The boy's smirk grew wider with the woman's reaction. A blush adorned Dadan's cheeks and her mouth fell open in a comical way, just as her eyes widened in such a way that they resembled dinner plates. "I'll go get Luffy." He said and ran upstairs before Dadan reacted.

"Come back here you little punk!"

Ace skipped to his brother's room with a smile on place, how he loved to tease Dadan. "Oi, Luffy!" He called, entering his brother's room without bothering to knock. "Dadan's downstairs right n- What the hell?"

The before mentioned boy lifted his gaze and – from his position in the ground – saw a face palming Ace. "Oh, she's here? Great! I thought she wouldn't come 'till next week!"

Ace sighed; Luffy was lying on the ground next to the empty wardrobe, covered by a ridiculous great amount of boxes and clothes with his goofy smile on place. His gaze then turned to Garp, who probably just got attacked by a narcoleptic fit. He was standing still over Luffy, snoring loudly and with his arms lifted over the boy; he guessed he was holding all those boxes before falling asleep and dropping them over Luffy.

"Do I want to know why Garp was holding all those boxes before dropping them at you?" Ace asked, removing some of the boxes from Luffy's back so that he could stand up.

"We were about to get my clothes and place them on the wardrobe, so gramps took all the boxes he could and dropped them on me when I was placing some of them on the ground."

"Idiot." Was everything Ace could muster before holding out his hand for Luffy to take. "Come on, I think the food's almost ready."

A beaming Luffy was the last thing Ace could see before the hyperactive boy ran away, yelling 'food' at the top of his lungs as he dashed downstairs. "Makino! Is the food ready yet?" Luffy asked as he took a seat next to Dadan, ignoring the fuming woman completely.

"What the hell am I?" Dadan asked, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at Luffy. "A damn painting? Greet me properly, you brat!"

Luffy turned his head to where the sound was coming from and he let his gaze rest on the sturdy woman that was now glaring at him. A few seconds passed, but soon realization came to him and with as much discretion as he could muster, Luffy pointed a rude finger at the now fuming woman. "Dadan! That's right, Ace told me you were here!"

Dadan sighed, it was too early to deal with this boy. "Yeah well, I came by to see what kind of place you boys were living at; it's nicer than what I expected."

"It's nice, isn't it?" Luffy said with a grin, a proud expression took over his face as he stared at his new home. "Ace said we will go and see your house next weekend, by the way."

It was moments like this that Dadan wondered why she ever agreed to take care of these two. "Like hell I'm gonna let you take a step near my house!"

"What! Why?" Luffy whined, because as he saw things, Dadan was being really unfair. "It's not like I'm a little kid anymore that destroys everything in his path!"

A soft choking noise came from where Makino was standing, if Dadan knew better – and she did – she would guess Makino was having a great time watching her suffer. "You _do_ destroy everything that crosses your path, Luffy…" Dadan said carefully, not wanting to make a scene right now.

"And you _are_ a little kid."

Luffy turned his head around, facing the owner of that voice as a pout adorned his face. "That's not true! Stupid Ace…"

"Alright, here's your food." Makino interrupted, placing three plates of scrambled eggs and bacon before the hungry brothers and Dadan. "Hm? Where's Garp-san?"

Ace smirked, making his way to the living room along with Luffy and Dadan before sitting down on a cushion he had placed on the floor so he could sit near the table. "He's upstairs, sleeping. Too bad, he won't be able to taste your food… Serves him right."

Makino sighed, she should go upstairs and wake up the poor man… but a knock on the door interrupted her from doing so. She stared at the boys, maybe they were expecting someone from this building? But the confused looks they both gave her said otherwise. With a shrug off her shoulders, Makino walked to the door and opened without a second thought.

"Shanks?" She said, surprise written all over her face. "I didn't know you were coming here, too."

"Neither did I!" The red haired man said loudly, thanking Makino as she stepped aside so he could enter. "My, this place looks even better now that it has some furniture!"

"It does, right?" Luffy agreed, spitting food all over the place as he waved enthusiastically. "We're only missing our rooms!"

Ace twitched, there was one big problem here, and those two idiots seemed to be oblivious at said problem as they laughed loudly due to whichever conversation they were having. Makino seemed to be aware of that problem, since she casted anxious glances between Shanks and the door, and Dadan… apparently she didn't give a damn. Ace face palmed, it seemed he would have to interrupt Shanks _amazing_ story about how he escaped the cops last night after wrecking some bar. That drunkard… "Shanks…" He started, successfully getting the redhead's attention. "How did you get into the building?"

Shanks stared, and stared, and stared. Then he smirked, "A really hot girl let me in." He said, a mischievous glint appeared on his eyes as he watched Ace. "She lives in this building, you know? You should check her out. Of course, whatever you do must be in her place, I don't want Luffy to walk into you two doing… stuff."

It was as if someone had just lit up the older teen in fire, because as soon as those words left Shanks mouth a flaming red took possession of Ace's face. "St-Stop joking, you damned pervert! What happened with all your ranting yesterday about me bringing girls home?"

"DAHAHAHA! Nonsense! You say that because you haven't seen her! But I tell you, she's really hot!"

"You know that woman, Ace?" Luffy asked, leaving his food at the side for the moment as he waited for Ace's answer.

"N-No!" He stuttered, why was he stuttering? "And I don't plan to meet her!"

"Good," Luffy said, resuming his attention to his half eaten breakfast. "Because I don't like her."

Don't like her? Why wouldn't Luffy like her if he didn't know her? He wanted to ask him, but a rather loud Shanks interrupted him from doing so. "Oh! The food looks delicious!" He said as he grabbed Garp's untouched breakfast. "No wonder your bar's always full of clients, Makino."

"Oi, isn't that Garp's food?" Dadan asked no one in particular, and her answer came soon enough by a pissed Garp that appeared on the staircase.

"Red Hair!" He all but yelled, dashing his way downstairs and stopping right before the now eating Shanks. "You bastard, that is _my_ breakfast!"

Shanks glared, whenever those two crossed paths hell was bound to come loose. "Yeah? Well then, see what I do with your breakfast!" Shanks said, enjoying the pissed off look Garp gave him as he devoured his breakfast with amazing speed.

"Now you've done it! Be prepared to face my powerful fist of Love!"

"Bring it on, damned geezer!"

CLANK!

The quarreling duo turned their heads to the source of that sound, only to see a new plate full of scrambled eggs and bacon, and a sweetly smiling Makino behind them. "Garp-san, Shanks," They gulped, somehow that sweet voice Makino was using emitted such a scary killing aura that neither of them dared to provoke her any further. "If you two start a fight here and do as much as a scratch to Ace's and Luffy's new home, you will have to deal with me, all right?"

They nodded, Makino's sweet smile never flattered as Garp grabbed his plate and both quickly made their way to the living room with everyone else. Their tails were clearly between their legs.

"Makino is really scary…" Luffy whispered, gulping the last of his food.

"Yeah," Dadan nodded, "To be able to control Shanks _and_ Garp like that…"

"I've got chills…" The freckled boy contributed, glancing at the two adults as they ate their food rather depressed.

"Oh my! Look at the time!" Makino suddenly said, "I have to go now."

Luffy was the first to react, "What? Can't you stay a bit more?"

"I need to attend the bar," She answered sweetly as she patted the younger D. "But don't you worry, Garp-san and Shanks will do the dishes, right guys?"

"Y-Yes ma'am!" They both said in unison, completely ignoring a chuckling Dadan.

"Good. If you need anything don't you doubt coming to the bar!" She finally said, and a few second later, Makino was already climbing down the stairs of the building.

Ace sighed, now that Makino was gone it was almost certain that those two would destroy his and Luffy's home; good thing Dadan was still here- "Well then, I've gotta go too." And there goes Ace's last hope. "I have to finish cleaning my new hose."

"Dadan too?" Luffy whined, handing his plate to his sulking grandfather so that he and Shanks could go and wash them. "But it's still too early!"

"It's 2 o' clock already." The sturdy woman answered, "Besides, I just came by to see in what kind of place you brats were living at."

Ace sighed, maybe if he was lucky enough Shanks would have to go for work… now how to get rid of Garp was the real problem… "Well then, prepare your house good enough, because next week Luffy and I will pay you a visit, old hag."

"Yeah, I'll go buy the fire extinguishers…" Dadan mumbled to herself before she too left the house.

The brothers sighed; somehow, this had been a pretty long day. "Ah~ We can finally rest." Luffy said, stretching himself as a yawn escaped from his lips.

"Yeah, I thought they would never leave."

A blink. Something was not right here…

"Ah! I forgot you two were still here…" Luffy said in barely more than a whisper, though a slightly annoyed tone could be heard on his words.

"Don't you have work to do?" Ace asked, he hoped, hoped, hoped that they would say yes.

"Not really." Was the unison answer of the two men.

This was _so _not right! Today was Sunday! They were supposed to get off of bed late, have a nice breakfast, finish their rooms, and if there was still time, maybe go to the movies or something. Ace was ready to do anything as long as it included cute little Luffy. But of course, lady luck was having the time of her life by annoying the freckled teen in the most ridiculous way she could muster. He could literally _feel_ a throbbing vein in his forehead…

"Ah that reminds me," Shanks said, getting the older teen off his musings. "You boys start a new term tomorrow, right? Did you buy your books already?"

"Now that you mention it, we were so busy with the new house that we forgot…"

"Perfect!" Garp said, startling the two brothers. "We will have a guys time!"

The only thing worse than the older males fighting, was when they both agreed to something.

Definitely.

"Luffy," Shanks said, grabbing both boys by the shoulders and pushing them effortlessly to the stairs. "Go shower, Garp and I will finish cleaning here. Ace, you go and get some decent clothes, okay? Well then, up, up!"

The two did as told and walked to the stairs, a clearly confused expression adorned they faces. They somehow climbed a few more steps, turned around, and saw the two older males, side by side, waving at them with identical blissful smiles on their faces. They flinched. "Is it just me, or do they look like a married couple?" Luffy murmured, resuming his steps as soon as he could muster.

"They do," Ace answered, he was so not staying back with those two. "It's creeping me out."

But even though their reluctance, Luffy took a quick shower and changed his clothes into a yellow vest and scrapped jeans, never forgetting to wear Shanks gifted straw hat. Ace too decided to follow Shanks advice for once and changed from his sweat pants into some dark jeans and a white shirt, nothing too elaborated. They both headed to where Shanks and Garp were waiting, and after a bloody battle of rock, paper, scissors; they decided to use Shanks car.

"Ah, shit… You go ahead," Ace said, grabbing Luffy by the arm and leading him to the front door. "We'll go with Crocus-san and get Luffy's spare key!"

Ace didn't wait for any answers, he dashed to the first floor, room one, and knocked continuously until the landlord opened the door.

"Geez, you didn't have to knock so much!"

"Woah! It's a flower! Hey mister, why do you have a flower on your head? So cool!"

"I'm sorry, Crocus-san," Ace said, bowing his head and grabbing Luffy by the collar so he would do the same. "I was trying to get us away from some weirdoes… Anyway, this is Luffy, my little brother, we came here to get his key."

"Luffy, huh?" Crocus said, inspecting the grinning boy from head to toe with a stern expression. "My, my, what a happy kid! Of course, of course, hold on; let me go get your key."

They nodded, and watched as the landlord walked into his house once more and disappeared into a corner. "Oi, Luffy." Ace called, "Do you have your books list with you?"

Luffy nodded in response, rummaging through the pockets of his pants until he found a crumpled piece of paper. "Nami gave me a copy in case I lost mine." He said, placing that same piece of paper in his pockets once more without bothering to fold it up.

"Sorry I kept you waiting." Crocus said, appearing once more before the boys with a set of keys and a metallic strip for the front gate, identical to Ace's. "If you ever have any problems or lose your key, come with me."

The boys nodded, and after thanking the man they headed to the front gate where Garp and Shanks were already waiting. They all got into the car and headed to Grand Line, the center part of town which connected almost every other neighborhood around. It was fairly big, where most of the population shopping took place. There was a shopping mall located at the center of the Grand Line, along with The Baratie, a five-star restaurant with high tempered chefs; Galley-LA, a repairing center with violent workers; many arcade places, clubs, cafes and bars that made the place even more lively along with the central park of the town. A park that crossed all through Grand Line, a park which brought many memories to certain freckled man.

It was definitely a place they knew well, since Garp's and Shanks' work was located in the Grand Line, and Luffy and Ace had to cross this place daily to get to their respective working place, Luffy's being located on the east, near the amusement park in a neighborhood called Sabaodi Archipelago, and Ace's being inside the Grand Line, ten minutes away from Luffy's work.

They headed to the nearest library and asked for their books. It was rather easy to get all of them, since most of Ace's and Luffy's authors were the same, but after ten minutes of waiting in line Luffy got impatient, and decided to go and explore into town; maybe he could meet someone out there. He got out without a word, and when heading right, just after getting out of the library Luffy bumped into someone, and quite the person he was. The man was wearing extravagant 80's style pants and a white collar shirt, with the first buttons undone. He had a hat that matched with his pants, and brown, shoulder length messy hair. All in all, an odd man, but what caught Luffy off guard were his glasses, heart shaped glasses.

"Ah, sorry." Luffy said, dismissing the man's appearance as he helped him grab the objects that fell down when colliding with each other.

That man, on the other hand, couldn't do anything but to stare, with mouth wide open, at the boy in front of him. It couldn't be, could it? But everything pointed to be him… Stupid wide smile, cute face, a small scar under his eye… then he noticed something, an old straw hat hanging on his back. He _was_ the boy from that time! And to think they would meet after so many years!

"Luffy! Why'd you run off like that?"

Luffy, if he remembered correctly, that was the name the other boy called out. And if his guessing was right, and the freckled boy that was heading to where they were was the same boy from that time, then his name would be Ace…

"Ah Ace!" The boy – Luffy – said. "I got bored there, so I decided to explore out here."

Ace, so they were those same kids! They were the ones that beat him up ten years ago! This was fate, fate was giving him one more chance to take revenge on those two for having ridiculed him. He took a good look at the boys in front of him, they were definitely taller now, and you could definitely see how they've gotten stronger… If they could take him down when kids, then right now it must be quite an easy task…

"Who's that?" The freckled boy asked, and the man could feel cold sweat running down his head.

"Dunno, I bumped into him when I got out of the library."

Ace stared at the man, his intense gaze penetrating deep inside him. "He seems familiar…"

"He does?" The younger one asked, staring, too, at the sweating man.

What was he waiting for? This was a one in a million chance to take revenge on them! So what if they were a little bit stronger than him? He had justice on his side now, he was now part of the police department of town. With a new resolution in mind, he stood up, ready to face the boys who made fun of him and make them pay.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" The three confused guys turned around just in time to see a pissed off Garp heading their direction, and in a split second, Ace and Luffy could be seen face first on the ground, a huge bump on each of their foreheads. "Why did you go out without saying anything! You dumb brats!"

"What was that for, grandpa!" Luffy yelled, being the first to get up and point a rude finger at him while his other hand nursed his head. "You psychotic old man!"

A vein popped on Garp's forehead, and soon enough a new bump could be seen in Luffy's head. "Don't you call me that, brat!"

Ace, being the protective older brother that he was, jumped up in front of Luffy, and while glaring at the older man standing in front of him he too yelled. "Don't hurt Luffy, you violent geezer!"

New veins popped on Garp's forehead, "I will not allow my grandsons to-! Huh? Who's that?"

The man with the heart-shaped glasses, who was, until now, forgotten, stiffened up after being addressed by Garp. He knew that man; he was Deputy Chief Monkey D. Garp, (1) One of the most feared police officers around the world, having captured many first rate criminals, and being the first officer to decline the offer of being ascended to chief. He was a man most of the lower ranking officers looked up to, and what's more, him being related to those two? This was bad, if Garp ever found out that he tried to kill his grandsons he would be sent to prison without a doubt. "D-D-Deputy Chief, Garp-san!" The man said, placing his hand over his head as a sign of respect.

"Ah! Now I remember, you're Jango, from Hina's department, aren't you?" Garp said, forgetting the small quarrel he had with his grandsons a few seconds ago. "Bwahaha! Are you enjoying your free day too?"

"Y-Yes!" Jango squeaked, his hand never leaving his forehead as he tried his best to hide the trembling of his legs.

"What's wrong with you three? Leaving me at the bookstore all alone…"

Jango's mouth fell open at the sight before him. A red haired man made his way to where they were standing, he was carrying some books and an exasperated expression adorned his face. That was the man he could never forget, he had been there the day those kids got away. That red haired man was the one who killed Kuro! He was shocked; of course after that incident Jango realized that what he had done was wrong, trying to kill a kid just for fun? That's why he applied to the police station, so he could finally mend his sins. But the shame of being beaten up by some kids was something that never left him, he wanted revenge.

Jango stopped trembling, he had a new resolution in mind. He directed a glare at those two, he was ready to attack them. "You-!" His jaw fell open for the second time that day. This couldn't be happening! Ace and Luffy were now talking animatedly with that red-haired man, completely forgetting his existence, and Garp was now asleep, probably from one of those narcoleptic fits he often got at work.

Did he really want to take revenge on those two? Now that he thought about it, he appreciated his life very much, and he was sure the four of them could beat him pretty badly if given the chance… Right. So it was decided, then.

Jango grabbed his dropped items at an amazing speed, and without even glancing at the men before him, he dashed to the other side of town, anywhere was definitely better than here.

"Huh? That man ran off somewhere…" Shanks said, watching as a freaked out Jango turned left and disappeared into the crowd. "He looked quite familiar… Well whatever, wake Garp up, what do you say if we go waste some time and then get something to eat, eh boys?"

"Yay! Food!" Luffy cheered, going to where his grandpa stood and shaking him with as much force as he could muster. "Come on gramps! Wake up!"

It took some effort, but after a while Garp was wide awake and the four of them went over to Shanks car and on to the mall. It seemed Garp was supposed to go and get some 'stuff' for work, such as pens, blank papers, and small little officer toys that moved their heads when you touched them. It was five thirty in the afternoon when they decided to go and look for something to eat, so Shanks decided to go and look for a good bar. It took them a matter of minutes to decide on one, Blueno's bar. It was one of the oldest bars in town, the prices were not so high, and the owner, Blueno, was a good listener. Or so Shanks said.

"Hey, Blueno! Long time no see!" Shanks greeted once he got a foot inside the bar.

He led everyone to the front and up to the stool, where Blueno was now drying a couple of glasses. Blueno was tall, sturdy, and had a never-changing bored expression on his face. He had black hair combed somewhat like horns; all in all, he resembled a bull.

"Oh, Shanks, I see you brought company with you." The owner answered as he gave his new clients a menu.

"Yep, these cute little boys are my nephews, Ace and Luffy;" Ace's eyebrow twitched, he shouldn't make a scene because Shanks called Luffy cute, right? Right. "And he… well, it doesn't matter. How's been the business?

"What the hell, red head!" Garp snapped, he banged his fists into the stool and glared at the smirking Shanks. "Show some respect to those with better jobs than yours!"

It seemed that those words made the trick, because Shanks smirk turned into a glare, and words turned into yells as they began to insult each other.

"I want… BBQ ribs." Luffy said, ignoring completely the bickering pair at his side as he smiled to the nervous owner of the bar.

"Then it'll be grilled steak for me, please." Ace said, giving his menu to the dumbfounded Blueno, as he made his best effort to go prepare the food and ignore the bickering pair that was making quite a ruckus in his bar.

…

"I can't believe it! Those good for nothing excuses of grownups!"

Two figures walked through the semi-empty streets of the Grand Line. It was dark already; the light the lamp posts emitted being the only means of guidance through the empty park.

It had been quite a normal evening in Blueno's bar, that is, until Garp and Shanks got drunk. They somehow managed to get the rest of the clients slightly drunk too, giving out free sake to everyone there, and finally managed to create a damn party in the bar. It had been certainly fun, until the brothers realized that it was already night time, their rooms weren't even ready, and they started a new term tomorrow.

But did Garp and Shanks care? Not at all.

They both tried to get the kids drunk, completely forgetting their responsibility as adults, until Ace finally decided to act and got the oblivious Luffy out of there. Too bad it was a thirty minutes walk from Blueno's bar to their new house.

"They better get one hell of a headache tomorrow… Just wait until Makino gets to know about this…" Ace mumbled, cursing those two over and over in his mind. "You okay, Luffy? You've been awfully quiet… Luffy?"

Ace halted when he realized that the normally talkative boy was not at his side; he turned around and saw Luffy, as tired as he was, hugging a lamp post and snoring lightly. Ace sighed, but that sigh soon turned into a smile as he went over to the boy and – as carefully as he could manage – got him into his back.

Luffy sighed contently in Ace's back as he hugged the older man out of instinct. "Ace…" He mumbled, and he snuggled his face in the older males neck as he resumed with his sleep. Ace blushed, was Luffy dreaming about him? The tingling sensation of Luffy's breath on his neck and the light brushing of his lips made it hard for him to concentrate and curse Garp and Shanks, but he smiled nonetheless. Having Luffy this close to him was the only thing he would ever manage, and he would cherish these small intimate moments as much as he could, even though Luffy was not aware of it, and most likely never will.

* * *

The dim lights and the light music of the bar calmed him to no end. It was rather lonely here unlike any other night, but he wouldn't complain, he liked the tranquility this night offered him. He took a sip from the glass wine he had on his hand as he rummaged through the papers on his other hand once more.

Many names tainted the piece of white, but only one caught his attention. This was a name he didn't expect to find, and to think they would cross paths soon enough. A shiver ran down his spine of pure anticipation, he couldn't wait. He would continue with that task he started so long ago, and he would make sure to end it for once and for all.

A smirk made its way to his face, and a fearsome glint shined in his eyes. He managed to contain the excitement that was threatening to burst out. Another sip, and he let that name roll through his tongue.

"Monkey D. Luffy."

* * *

(1) Since this is an AU, I will use police rankings instead of Marines, so it would be something like this…

General Chief – Sengoku (Fleet Admiral)

Chief – Akainu, Kizaru, Aokiji (Admiral)

Deputy Chief – Garp (Vice Admiral)

And so on and so forth until Officer, which would be the lowest rank. If I mention another ranking I will make sure to explain it afterwards.

I'm not really satisfied with how this turned out… so think of this chapter as a filler… kind of… XD And yes, as you can see, the story will FINALLY advance. I really don't have much to say except that I'm sorry for making you wait…

Well then, review time (Yay!)

**Viero D. Eclipse **I'm really glad you like this fic, it makes me happy to know I'm not writing utter nonsense, XD. And Luffy loving Ace, well, we'll have to wait and see ;)

**Voquo** I know what you mean, I got iffy too when writing about Alvida haha, I'm glad you're liking this, and who knows! Maybe Mihawk isn't that bad of a boss…? Yeah, right, who am I kidding…

**AlzeahXei **Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoy this. Yeah, I'm trying to bring as many characters as I can, but it's kind of complicated… lol! I'll keep trying before this gets confusing, though!

**Sdfsdfasdasd **I'm sorry for the long wait… but here it is! XD I know, I was looking for an AcexLuffy AU but I couldn't find many… So I decided to write one. Weird, right? Anyway, I'm glad this brightens your day, I hope you enjoyed this chapter too!

**hilian **I'm really glad you're liking this! Yeah, I originally thought of placing a page break, but kind of forgot… :P I'll try and be more explicit next time, though!

**Luffy95** Sorry, It wasn't that soon… but! Better late than never at all! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

**slycooperfangirl4** Hahaha! That has to be one of the most random reviews I've got! XD Seriously made me laugh…! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

**Jime-chan **Uh… I'm sorry for the long wait… u.u Yeah, I know, when I knew Ace and Luffy weren't brothers I went all fangirl mode. XD Thank Oda for that. Of course there will be jealousy soon enough! Besides, a jealous Luffy is just too cute!

**LolyGothica **I'm glad you like my story! Sorry for the long wait, but here's next chapter. And yes, Luffy's just too cute for his own good, too bad for Ace, he has to deal with the pervs out there!

**bloodless **Thank you so much! Sorry for the long wait though!

**Sachiel Angelo **I'm really glad you think that way! I really wasn't sure on posting that last chapter (or this one…) but it had to be there for the sake of the plot… sigh… Sorry for the long wait, I hope you enjoy this chapter too!

**Eyalane** Thank you! I try to double check for any mistake, although I'm no expert and I'm pretty sure there must be something there XD I'm sorry, I didn't mention their ages, but yeah, they're 20 and 17, just like in the manga.

**SilverMajix** Damn, I can't resist puppy dog eyes… XD Thank you so much! I'm glad you like this story!

**kittymoon14** Thank you! I'm glad you like this, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter too!

I'll really do my best to update next chapter fast! And thanks for sticking up with me!

~nt'kit


	4. III

Hi there! I planned to post this some days ago but… my nephews came… I think this was the most tiring week I've ever had… I mean, I love them and all but… God! They woke me up _too_ early in the morning so I could play with them. I don't even know why I used to wake up so early when I was a kid too. But well, whatever. Here's next chapter!

Warning: Uh… a bit of cursing? Hmm… un-beta'ed, I think that's about it.

Disclaimer: Did you know that when you sneeze your heart stops for a millisecond? Well now you know that aside from the fact that I don't own One Piece.

* * *

**Day One**

It was certainly a beautiful day. The sun was shining; the clouds were white and fluffy, moving ever so slightly with the morning breeze. The birds were chirping and singing that beautiful song of theirs to show their happiness towards a brand new day.

And if those birds didn't shut up any time soon, certain raven haired boy would make sure to smother them with his pillow.

Why couldn't they see that their stupid song was not welcome here? Luffy groaned, he would give them ten seconds, and if they didn't stop chirping by then, some drastic measures would be taken. He counted, groggily and sleepily, until he reached number three – mind you, the birds were _still_ singing – and then something happened, something unexpected and unwelcome happened.

Luffy's alarm clock went off.

It felt as if someone had just poured a bucket of cold water on the semi-sleeping boy. He sat up almost immediately out of surprise, and in an attempt to turn off the 'demonic alarm clock of doom', said raven haired boy rolled on his bed and stretched his right arm to shut up that offending sound. He sighed, why did he even turn on the alarm? Maybe it was a sick prank by those stupid birds, because Luffy could _swear_ that the birds that were singing a few minutes ago were now staring down at him, and they were _smirking_.

Luffy glared, and the birds glared back. There were a few seconds of tension until Luffy gasped, his previous competition with the birds long forgotten. Today was the first day of school, that's why he turned on the alarm clock last night!

He needed to get up, otherwise he would be late. Luffy sighed, he stretched a bit and attempted to get out of bed, and he would have done so successfully, had he not tangled his legs on the blanket before when he rolled over to turn off the alarm. With a loud crash Luffy's face was met with the cold floor, one of his legs still trapped on the sheets while the other hung loosely over him.

This was definitely not a good morning.

Luffy groaned, shaking his leg furiously until it was free from the covers. He pushed himself up, and without even bothering to settle the mess that was his bed he went directly to the door and down to the kitchen. If his nose wasn't betraying him, he was sure Ace made hotcakes for breakfast.

"Morning." Luffy mumbled before heading to the breakfast bar, sitting almost automatically and letting his head rest on the cool marble.

Ace turned around, a plate full of hotcakes in one hand while the other balanced two empty plates and two clean glasses, and smiled at the sight before him. He placed a plate and a glass in front of the sleepy boy, he poured some milk in both glasses and then grabbed some hotcakes for himself before the younger D. had time to react and devoured all of them. "What's wrong, didn't sleep well?" Ace asked, pouring a fair amount of syrup in his plate before enjoying his breakfast.

Luffy shook his head, grabbing half of the hotcakes and placing them in his plate absentmindedly before grabbing some syrup too. "The waking part was the problem." He said, his eyes still clouded with sleep. "I swear those birds are plotting something…"

Ace sweat dropped. Admittedly, Luffy was still in a sleeping stupor, hence not knowing what he was saying… or so he hoped. He watched amusedly how his little brother devoured his breakfast with his eyes now closed, he knew the boy was asleep at the moment, somehow he learned how to eat while sleeping a few years back. Ace suppressed a yawn himself before cursing Garp and Shanks to the pits of hell. Those idiots… One would think that they were old and responsible enough to know better than to get drunk the night before work – and drag them along one day before school started – but once again they managed to prove you wrong.

He really hoped those two would have a killer headache for the rest of the day.

"Oi, Luffy…" Ace poked the sleeping boy with the back of his fork, even though he too was a D., Luffy's speed when eating was unmatchable. "Wake up already, I guess you still haven't showered?"

Luffy groaned in response, biting and chewing the end of the fork out of reflex. "Mngh… it's hard…"

"Of course it's hard idiot, it's a fork." Ace muttered, trying to suppress the blush in his cheeks because damn it! Luffy was an idiot for not realizing how suggestive his words were when sleep deprived! "G-Go shower already, we don't want to be late on the first day of school."

Luffy nodded, dragging his feet out of the kitchen bar and heading towards the opposite direction. Ace let his hand cover his face before sighing, was it really the best of options to live with his little brother alone? He shook his head trying to get rid of such thoughts; it was too late to regret his decision, anyway. Ace grabbed his and Luffy's plate and headed to the sink humming a pointless tune to pass time, suddenly, a loud crash grabbed his attention; he turned around after closing the pouring water and stared, there was no one in the living room… Maybe Luffy dropped something upstairs? He shrugged, ready to resume his pending task when some mumbling caught his attention once again. With a suspicious glare Ace headed to the living room, the wall in the kitchen made it hard to get a full view of the place; he was sure he closed his door last night, and even if he hadn't you had to have a key to enter the building. Then a door opened, Ace turned around, ready to attack whoever had just sneaked into his home, but he stayed still on his tracks because this just _couldn't_ be happening.

"I forgot we didn't have a shower downstairs…"

Ace stared… and stared, and stared, and stared until he could feel his brain going into a massive break down and he could picture little Ace's running around in circles. Luffy got out of the bathroom in all his naked glory except for that minuscule towel that was now hanging low on his waist. He was carrying his clothes in one hand, while the other rested at the back of his head and he smiled sheepishly at his staring older brother. "Ah, sorry, sorry, I'll go and shower now!" Needless to say, Ace had to dash into the kitchen before a running Luffy showed a little too much for him to handle.

Ace placed a hand on his chest and tried to calm down the friggin' orchestra that now took place inside his body, because he was sure that _that_ was not just his heart beating fast. He cursed under his breath, some day Luffy was going to kill him, he just knew it. Ace finished washing the dishes and headed upstairs, he took a bath before making breakfast, so he just needed to change into his uniform and get his school bag ready. He took off his shirt and tossed it to the bed, leaving him now in his boxers as he bent down and looked for the school uniform that was still in one of the boxes.

Once again, he blamed Shanks and Garp for not letting them finish their rooms.

Ace frowned, he was sure he placed his uniform on top of the other clothes so he wouldn't have to suffer while looking for it. He crawled to the next box, opening it hastily and hence not noticing that a wet Luffy burst into his room. "Hey Ace, have you seen my… uh…" He gulped, staring at the sight before him with reddened cheeks. Ace was kneeling in all fours giving his little brother quite a view of his ass.

"Sorry Lu, did you say something?" Ace said, not bothering to look at his brother as he continued to look for his shirt.

Luffy fidgeted; somehow his eyes couldn't stop staring at his brother's butt. "I… uh… never mind!" He said, dashing out of there and heading to his own room, securely closing the door behind him.

Luffy kept his back pressed against the door, he could feel how his face was on fire but couldn't quite place his mind on why. He just saw Ace's butt, so what? It was not like this was the first time seeing it, he had even spanked him once after watching some men on the T.V. doing it. Of course he had never seen it like this, with Ace half naked and kneeling on the floor and – what the hell was wrong with him!

A low grumbling interrupted his thoughts. It took Luffy a few seconds to react before he pounded his fist against the palm of his hand in acquired knowledge, he was hungry, that's why he had such thoughts! He grinned proudly at himself, now everything made sense, there was nothing to worry about. He skipped happily towards his bed, where his uniform was waiting for him, and forgetting his previous thoughts and locking them far away in his mind, Luffy changed into the dark gery pants and white collar shirt, not bothering to tuck it in at all.

"Luffy! Are you ready yet?"

Luffy grabbed his school bag before answering. "Almost!" He said, making sure that his books, phone, wallet and keys were inside his bag.

With a content nod Luffy headed downstairs, forcing his shoes on as he tried to maintain his balance in the staircase, and finally grinned to a chuckling Ace. "Hey, Ace, we should really clean our bedrooms."

"I agree," Said Ace as he maintained open the front door for Luffy to pass and closed it afterwards. "We'll clean later tonight, all right?"

"All right!" Luffy all but yelled, holding a fist up in the air while making his way downstairs, Ace following right behind. Luffy waited for his brother to catch up with him so he could open the front gate, all the while furrowing his eyebrows in thought. "Hey Ace, what if we go to the arcade instead and –"

"No."

"Well, how about the new ice-cream parlor? They say it's really –"

"No."

"And what about the –"

"No."

Luffy pouted. He needed to find some place good enough to convince his brother first. "Why not?"

"Because," Ace started, passing his left arm over the younger boy's head and successfully trapping him in a headlock. "We don't want to cause a bad first impression in our new teachers; besides, don't you want to see your friends?"

"I… do…" Luffy managed to say, struggling from his brother's grasp and failing miserably. "I just… don't wanna… go to… school!"

"You're still too weak, little brother." Ace said before smirking evilly and giving the younger boy a head nuggie.

The boys continued to play rather loudly while walking down the semi-empty streets, it was still early in the morning, but the small chatting from the elders and the noise from the small restaurants could still be heard. Indeed, the school was not that far away from the new condo the brothers were now living at, and after a few minutes from walking they could easily see their school some streets further, behind some buildings and houses.

Their school was located a few streets away from Grand Line, and it was one of the most prestigious schools around the country. The school grounds were far from big, having both, high school and college buildings, two dormitories dividing boys and girls, a pool used mostly at physical education class, and two huge cafeterias for both buildings among the vast garden that connected both buildings and many other things. The cafeterias were by far both D.'s favorite place. Both being big enough to compete against The Baratie, plus the quality of the food didn't fall behind. The school principal, Gan Fall, was an old man that placed the health of his students first; of course the fact that he provided Thursday's pumpkin juice was just mere coincidence.

"Hey! Luffy, Ace!"

The aforementioned boys turned around to the source of commotion. A grin spread on Luffy's face after seeing a long nosed boy running from behind, trying to catch up to them and clearly out of breath.

"Usopp!" Luffy greeted, barely containing his excitement as his friend stopped right before him and started to pant, a hand clutching his shirt while the other made waving motions. "You have no stamina at all!" Luffy pointed out, openly laughing at the now glaring man. Usopp decided to ignore this; he needed to concentrate on breathing first.

"Geez! I've been calling you for ages!" Usopp exaggerated, finally standing straight while settling his shirt in place, slightly smoothing it down in case there were any wrinkles.

Luffy grinned, clearly ignoring the annoyed glare that his friend was sending him. Usopp stood right in front of Luffy, making clear the few inches that made him taller than the happy-go-lucky boy. He pinched the bridge of his long nose, somehow just standing near Luffy made him tired. "So, how's the new house?" He asked, turning to Ace instead as he started to walk alongside the raven headed boys.

Ace smiled, "It's pretty nice, and it's rather big too." He liked that Usopp kid, he had known him from long ago, since he was the son of Yasopp, one of Shanks friends, and a really close friend to Luffy, getting involved in every of his schemes whether he liked it or not. But most of all, he knew that Usopp didn't have perverted thoughts about his cute little brother. Before getting a job, Luffy used to spend a lot of time at Usopp's, playing videogames or – in Luffy's case – eating. Now that he worked for Shakky he had less time to do so, but still went over to his house on weekends or vice-versa. Ace nodded to himself, he was a good kid.

"You should come and see it, Usopp!" Luffy said, waving his arms excitedly. "It's really big, and the landlord looks like a flower. He's really funny!" He finished with a chuckle, earning a smack across the head from Ace.

They continued to walk for a good five minutes before the school was completely in sight.

"Well, Marco's already waiting for me." Ace said while pointing at the blonde man that was leaning at the entrance of the college division. "Make sure Luffy doesn't get in trouble on the first day of school."

Usopp nodded, a serious look adorned his face while considering the dangers and grade of difficulty such task meant.

"Bye Ace! See you later!"

Ace waved from afar, walking up to a scowling Marco before both entered the building, Luffy and Usopp following their lead as they walked to the high school grounds.

They both walked through the building's hallways; there were a few students already there, but it wasn't crowded enough to make it impossible to walk. Luffy followed Usopp, really not knowing where they were going. It seemed they had the same homeroom and a few other classes, but Luffy didn't have the decency to look at his schedule until Usopp asked him about it. Nonetheless, they walked for a few minutes, finally reaching their homeroom which was located on the second floor of the building. "… And then, I was surrounded by giants!" Usopp said, flailing his arms for added emphasis. "So I grabbed my slingshot and defeated them all with a fiery shot!"

"So cool!" Luffy added; glitter practically falling around him. "What happened then?"

"I know, isn't it? But then their leaders came! Two fierce giants ready to attack me. So I, being the brave warrior that I am, stood my ground and told them: 'You think you can defeat me, the great Captain Uso –"

"What are you two yelling about?"

Luffy and Usopp turned around, a confused look adorning the smaller raven's face while Usopp's arm was held in place on the air, his sudden inspiration cut short when the orange haired girl interrupted him.

"Nami!" Luffy said excitedly, "You have homeroom here too?" He asked when said girl made her way to the door Luffy and Usopp were about to enter.

"Yep, and Vivi does too."

"Vivi has homeroom with us too?" Usopp asked, following the orange haired girl inside the classroom. "Where is she now?"

"Hm, she should be here soon." Nami said, taking a seat behind Luffy. "Say, Luffy, how's your new house?" She asked, a small smile in her face. It had been a while since she had seen the raven haired boy. Ever since he had announced he would be moving out with Ace and getting a job himself it seemed that the time he could spend with everyone had reduced dramatically. Luffy would still manage to see them all, joining up with everyone on the weekends or somehow dragging everyone in one of his so called adventures. But when Ace and Luffy finally found a place to live, it had been almost impossible to see the boy, since he was busy packing or arranging the new house. Still, it amazed Nami how the boy managed to smile and act so normally, as if that time he wasn't able to see everybody had never happened.

"Oh! It's great!" Luffy said, turning around so he could be able to talk with his friends easily. "It's really big and Ace and I managed to finish the first floor before gramps and Shanks arrived."

The trio talked animatedly as the rest of the class filled up, talking about what they've done on the summer break, or planning to meet with everybody else for an update. Soon enough, the class was nearly full with the rest of the students.

"Nami-swan! You're in this class too!"

Almost every student turned around to see the blond man spinning around happily with heart-shaped eyes. Usopp sighed, Luffy laughed, Nami face-palmed.

"Oh, we have homeroom with Luffy-san and Usopp-san too?"

"Vivi!" Usopp and Luffy yelled in unison, waving their hands to the blue-haired girl. "It's been so long!" Luffy said; glad to have two other friends in the same class as him.

Vivi nodded, walking to where her friends were and sitting besides Nami, which was also behind Usopp.

"Oh! To be in the same class as Vivi-chan and Nami-san! This must be a gift from God!" The blond-haired man said, ignoring the weird looks the rest of the students were giving him.

"Oi, Sanji! Stop ignoring us!" Said man turned around to a pouting Luffy, his arms were crossed as he scowled at the taller man.

Sanji smiled, he ruffled Luffy's hair affectionately before adding more force to his small gesture, and finally, slamming the boys head against his desk. "You damned bastard! How come I never knew you moved out, eh!"

"Ah, I didn't tell you?" Came Luffy's muffled response, his face still pressed against the desk making it hard to speak. "Sorry, my bad!" He said before laughing wholeheartedly, successfully annoying the now fuming blond.

"Say, do you know who our homeroom teacher is?" Vivi asked, trying to gain the fighting duo's attention.

"Now that you mention it, I've never heard that name before…" Usopp said, placing a hand below his chin in concentration. "I think his name was Spandam…"

"Of course you wouldn't have," Nami said. "He's from the college division, Nojiko told me about him."

"As to be expected! Nami-san knows everything!"

"How is he like?" Usopp asked, completely ignoring the spinning moron beside him.

"I'm not sure," Nami said, a look of concentration in her face. "Nojiko never had classes with him, but she heard some people saying he was a complete bastard."

As if on cue, the ringing of the bell signaled the start of class. The door slammed open just as the bell stopped and a man walked over to the teacher's desk. He was a rather strange man, a leather mask covered most of his face, he had lavender shoulder-length hair and dark markings around his eyes. He stomped to the chalk board and wrote in big, messy words his name. Nobody moved, their eyes fixed on the scowling man as they waited for him to talk.

"Listen up, everybody!" He said loudly, making most of the class to finch or jump on their seats. "You will call me Spandam-sensei, I will be your homeroom teacher and, as it seems, after homeroom you will all stay here and have math with me. I will leave you a lot of homework and I expect you to hand it all when I say so, you hear brats?"

"What the hell crawled up his ass and died?" Sanji murmured, earning a small chuckle from Luffy and a glare from Spandam.

"I-I think we shouldn't anger him…" Usopp whispered, his legs trembling slightly as cold sweat formed on his forehead.

"I expect you lot to behave the rest of the term and don't cause any trouble. I have no need to tech you brats anything, but if I teach college and high school division it'll be most likely that I'll get a promotion."

"Good thing we don't have homeroom with that moss head." Sanji murmured once again, grinning from ear to ear at the thought of no Zoro for the rest of the term.

"Five bucks he got himself lost and didn't arrive on time." Luffy said, bending his body forward so that Sanji could hear him without raising too much his voice.

"Deal."

"You guys, pay attention before that man yells at you!" Nami hissed, getting back to her chair before the teacher could see her talking.

"… So I'll give you the slips next class, and you'll have to hand them to me with your parents' signature so you can go to the school trip, any questions?" Spandam looked around, waiting for someone to raise a hand, and when no one did nodded, he continued with class. "Good, then I'll –"

A sudden knock interrupted him, making a vein pop on his forehead. "What!" He snapped, opening the door brusquely and glaring at whoever dared to interrupt him.

"Oh, Spanda!" A blue haired man said, entering the classroom even though Spandam's protests. "I didn't know you taught here too."

"It's Spanda_m_, damn it!" He said, obviously upset at the man's presence. "What the hell do you want, Franky?"

Franky grinned, clearly pleased with himself at making the other teacher mad. "I'm here to drop Roronoa Zoro, he has zero sense of direction and ended up in the gym building instead." He said, joining his arms above his head while making some sort of pose.

"Isn't the gym at the other side of the building?" Spandam asked, eyeing the green haired man with curiosity. He blushed, mumbling something about confusing corridors.

"Well, I've done my task already," Franky said, he then turned around and waved at the staring students. "I'll see you in my class! Super!"

"Wear some damn pants, pervert!" Spandam yelled, closing the door brusquely and crushing his fingers in the process.

The classroom roared with laughter at the sight of the cursing man jumping up and down while blowing his abused fingers. Zoro, on the other hand, walked to the empty seat beside Sanji with a light blush on his cheeks. He was _sure_ they remodeled the building, why would he end at the opposite side of the school if not?

"Damn you…" Sanji said, handing a grinning Luffy the money he owed him.

"Spandex-sensei!"

"What!" Spandam snapped, turning around and spotting a grinning boy with his hand held up high. Then it hit him. "It's Spandam! Span-_dam_!" He yelled, but with the pain in his hand and what promised to be an upcoming headache, it turned out to sound more like a squawk.

"Spanda! Can I go to the restroom?" Luffy said, his trademark grin never leaving his face.

Spandam gaped, his unharmed hand twitched in what could only be interpreted as an aching will to wrap around that boy's neck. "Oh for the love of – just _go_!"

Luffy nodded, standing up and heading to the door while ignoring the small snickering his friends were unsuccessfully holding back. Luffy got off the classroom and walked toward the staircase; there were restrooms in the second floor too, but for some odd reason he liked the ones on the first floor better. He skipped through the empty hallways happily, today after school he was going to Shakky's Rip Off Bar, and he was going to work extra hard to make up for the day Shakky gave him off. Luffy's grin got wider if possible, as he wondered if maybe Rayleigh would go there today, it had been so long since he had seen him… So lost in thought Luffy didn't notice the person standing in front of him but after he crashed with the back of said person, sending him to the ground with a muffled 'thud'.

"Ow…" Luffy whined, rubbing his back slightly. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you – Marco?"

The blond man turned around, blinking in surprise at the sight in front of him before holding out his hand and helping the younger boy up. "You should be more careful when walking, Luffy."

"Sorry," Luffy grinned, "I wasn't paying attention. What are you doing here, anyway?"

Marco sighed, a dark look crossed his face before he stared at the curious boy. "You know how every year two students of the college division get selected to represent us and make sure that the high school students are fully prepared for college?"

Luffy nodded, signaling the blond man to continue.

"Well, thanks to _your _brother" He pushed his index finger into Luffy's forehead before continuing. "I am the new representative. He was supposed to be here instead of me, but somehow he managed to place me in this position while he's gonna be the one helping me out." Marco finished, a sullen look on his face. "I'm surely getting him for this…"

Luffy chuckled, getting Marco mad was quite a task, but somehow he found the whole thing rather amusing. "So Marco's the male representative," He said, gaining the man's attention once again. "Then who's the girl?"

"Some chick named Boa Hancock, she's a new student but somehow got everyone's votes as the new representative, so I'm showing her around. She's in the restroom now, though."

"I see…" Luffy pondered, processing every bit of information before… "Hold on," He suddenly said, startling the older male. "I need to pee."

And without further ado, Luffy rushed to the restroom, leaving a confused Marco alone. He let out a low chuckle, somehow being near Luffy always relaxed him, be it that outgoing personality or his optimistic self, the boy always managed to draw everyone close to him. It was something involuntary, really, but it was rather easy to open up to the boy. Marco stared at the way Luffy disappeared for a while before his eyes widened. He couldn't have… could he? He really didn't pay attention to which way the boy went but… he couldn't be that stupid, right?

Luffy let out a breath of relief, he really felt like he was going to explode soon if something wasn't done. He flushed down the toilet and just then took notice of his surroundings. There was something odd here, last time he checked the walls were painted in a light blue instead of this pastel pink… and he noticed how now there were doors to every toilet… He heard water running from the sink outside the door and Luffy grinned, wondering just who was outside and if he knew him.

He opened the door with a little more force than intended, thus startling the man in front of him. Luffy apologized sheepishly, going over to the sink and washing his hands in silence after noticing that he didn't know that man and that he was staring rather intently too, almost as if in shock.

Luffy gave the man a weird look; he had scared him, sure, but it was not necessary to stare at him like that, right? Right. So with a nod, Luffy turned around and smiled at the still shocked man. "Hi! I'm Luffy! Are you a new student? I haven't seen you around…"

The other man stared, his shocked face turning to one of slight embarrassment and anger, as his cheeks started to color pink. "I-I…"

"Oh!" Luffy interrupted, pointing quite rudely at the stuttering man's long black hair, "Your hair is really long! It's even longer than Vivi's! And she's a girl!"

The man stared, a twitch visibly forming on his right eye. He cleared his throat, ready to retort to the stupidly smiling boy before he was interrupted once again by an annoyed – and slightly nervous – voice. "Oi, Luffy, can you come here for a sec?"

Luffy turned around, heading towards the door and completely ignoring the gaping man. "Hey Marco, they painted the restroom's walls pink, why would they do that? Is college the same now?" Luffy asked, Marco just sighed in exasperation; yes, he was _that_ stupid.

"Luffy, you –"

"Hold on a second, you disrespectful man!"

Both males turned around and found a very pissed, very red faced, person coming out of the same door Luffy did. Marco stared, and then trained his gaze to the still obliviously smiling boy. Of course, this was just bound to be a damned long day.

"Oh Marco, I just met this guy," Luffy said, pointing towards the fuming man in question. "He's really funny! He keeps making these weird faces… look, he's making one now!"

"I am _not_a man, you stupid… man!"

"Luffy," Marco said, easily getting the boy's attention. "Didn't you notice that _he_ is wearing a _skirt_?" He really, really hopped that stressing the word 'skirt' would give him a hint.

Luffy turned around slowly, thoroughly examining the person in front of him and realizing that, indeed, he was wearing a skirt. There were a few more seconds of silence, Luffy still staring at the skirt before his eyes suddenly grew with realization. "Are you a cross dresser?"

Marco gaped, disbelief clearly showing in his face.

Somewhere, not very far from there, the crying of a newly born gay baby could be heard. (1)

It took a few more seconds of awkward silence before a cough finally interrupted; Marco was truly having a hard time trying to hide his laughter. "N-No, Luffy," He cleared his throat, "He's not gay, he is a _she_."

Luffy just stared at Marco with confused eyes, the blond man cocked his head to the side lightly, signaling the boy to look again. Luffy obliged, staring at the now clarified woman and scanned her from head to toe. He finally let a small 'ah' escape his lips in realization, and faced the blond man instead. "You're right, he has boobs."

If there was something he could do, was full control of his emotions; and Marco was damn proud about it. No matter what the circumstances were, he could always place a serene face and it had proved to be quite useful too. There were just some special cases where the shook was too much; strangely enough most of the times these incidents happened, the D. brothers involved.

And this was one of those moments.

Luffy had not only insulted the most beautiful woman in college, – or so they said, he really couldn't see what was oh-so-wonderful about her, I mean, she was hot and all but… – he had also openly ridiculed her _and_ made a blunt statement about her breasts, in front of her, nonetheless. Of course the situation warranted the parade of expressions that crossed the blond man's face, which went from shock, to mirth, and to a slight combination of being constipated and somehow finding that situation too damned hilarious. He chuckled, and that earned him a glare from the beat-red faced woman. "Luffy, this is Boa Hancock, the woman I just told you about."

"Nice to meet you." Luffy said, bowing his head low. "Ah – I have to go, or Spandex-sensei will get mad."

Marco nodded, dismissing the boy with a wave of his hand, the traces of a smirk could still be seen on his face.

"Bye-bye, man-chick ("I'm a _woman_!"), bye Marco!"

Luffy could still hear the faint ramblings of Boa Hancock when he headed to the stairs, though by the time he reached the second floor that noise ceased to exist. And so, the boy skipped happily to his classroom. The rest of the day seemed to pass pretty fast, he had math with all of his friends after homeroom and that Spandam professor, although as the class passed by the general thought of 'Damn, that man is scary' was soon replaced with a few thoughts of 'He's and idiot', or even the uncommon 'That professor is really funny'. He was just too clumsy for his own good. Although that didn't calm the protests the class made when discovering that in two days they were going to have a small exam, just to see how everyone's doing. This came as a good opportunity for Luffy to show his house to his friends, deciding that tomorrow evening everyone would gather at his place and study.

English came next, he shared this class with Zoro and Nami, and they had to literally drag the green haired man to class after finding him struggling with the janitor's closet. Buggy was their teacher, and after a few curses and broken arms, – that boy would never be able to see an apple again – the class knew that they did _not_ ask about Buggy's nose. Ever.

Lunch was, without a doubt, Luffy's favorite time of the day. He had finally managed to spend time with his friends without any teacher telling him to be quiet, and best of all, today they served meat. This was absolutely the best first day at school ever. Of course lunch passed too fast for everyone's liking; they had decided to eat outside this time, and things had gotten interesting after Sanji decided to point out so kindly how much of an idiot Zoro was by getting himself near the pool, which was in another building, instead of where actual classrooms were. Watching Zoro and Sanji fight was one of Luffy's favorite activities, especially when Nami was the one to end the fight by knocking them both out. She was really scary when mad…

Contemporary Arts just proved to be as bizarre as it seemed. It was a relatively new class in high school, where students were able to express themselves in different ways. This teacher, though, seemed to be fond of doing so with music. He was tall, skinny, and old. Very old. His skin clung to his frame tightly, seeming as if he was a living skeleton with an afro. Even though, his personality screamed 'youth', because he appeared to be an even more active person than most of the students. Luffy and Usopp found out that he was also a pervert, since when he saw Vivi and every other girl he asked quite politely if he could 'see their panties'. This of course earned him many slaps, but when time came to teach, Brook proved to be an excellent teacher.

The last class finally came, and Luffy headed to his science class with Nami's help. Science class teacher seemed to be less scary than what most would think, since the man was tall and muscular, with a sadistic smirk in place and what resembled a chestnut above his blond hair. He seemed to enjoy giving that aura, finding every opportunity to scare a student hilarious, but as class went by the students realized that Montblanc Cricket was a cheerful teacher with a rather sadistic sense of humor.

Luffy smiled, heading to Shakky's bar while remembering that day's event. It might be weird to think like that, especially from him, but he really couldn't wait for next day to come and go to school. He had missed his friends, the whole moving thing had him occupied enough to not notice so much himself, but after seeing them all once again… "I'm here!" Luffy said while entering the bar. There were a few customers there already, and the frequent clients that recognized the cheerful boy already greeted him before he went to the back of the local, where his uniform was waiting for him.

"Ah, Monkey-chan!"

Luffy turned around, clothes in hand, and smiled broadly the owner of the bar. "Shakky! Thank you so much for giving me the day off last time, Ace says you can come and see our house whenever you feel like it."

"Well then, I'll take his word." Shakky said, exhaling a puff of smoke before taking the cigarette from her mouth. "How was your first day at school?"

"It was good! I have some really funny teachers."

Shakky smiled, ruffling the younger boy's hair before heading to the door. "I'm glad. Well, go change; I have a delivery for you."

Luffy nodded, deciding to change in that room rather than in the restroom and taking of his school uniform to replace it with a white button up shirt with a black bow and black tight pants. When Luffy first whined about the tight pants Shakky told him that it made him look good, conveniently forgetting to say that they highlighted his butt nicely. She made sure that Ace never knew about such pants, for obvious reasons.

Luffy went over to the counter where Shakky was now reading some magazine. "You know, I'm thinking about changing the uniform." She said, leaving the magazine aside and grabbing two bags with the take-out order.

"Oh really? How so?"

Shakky smirked. "I was thinking on something with leather, maybe no shirts, you know, less expenses… the bow stays, though."

Luffy's cheeks went a bright red, snatching the bags from Shakky's hands and giving her a half-heartedly glare. "Y-You're not serious, right?"

"I'm kidding." She said with a smile, flicking the blushing boy on the forehead. "Monkey-chan is just so cute, it made me want to mess with you a little." She ignored the indignant pout the boy gave her before resuming with her magazine. "Take this to the boys of Galley-LA, will you?"

With a small grunt, Luffy walked out the bar and straight to Galley-LA. It wasn't that much of a walk, since the place was about fifteen minutes away from Shakky's Rip Off Bar, and thankfully there were a few clouds that blocked the sun from the warm streets of Grand Line. Luffy sung a pointless song on his way to pass the time, ignoring the weird looks some people gave him or the slight chuckles he received from a group of girls. When he finally saw the great gates of Galle-LA, Luffy picked up his pace, he jumped over the fence that surrounded their working place, ignoring the angry yells from the guards telling him to 'use the damn gate at least once'.

"I was wondering what got the guards so riled up."

Luffy turned around to where that voice had come from, and his grin turned to one of shock that exact same moment. "Usopp?" He asked, "You work here now?"

"Usopp?" The long nosed man said, scratching the back of his head as he stared the boy in front of him with confusion.

"He thinks you're his long nosed friend." A man with a cigar sticking out of his mouth and orange goggles up his head said. "He's not your friend, Straw Hat, he's Kaku."

"Ah, Paulie!" Luffy said, grinning at the approaching man. "Are you sure? They have the same nose…"

"No, Kaku's nose is square-like."

"Yeah, you're right; his nose is even weirder than Usopp's."

"H-Hey! I'm still here!"

"Oh! The straw hat boy already came!" Everyone turned around to the source of such loud and obnoxious voce. A big man with no shirt and a large beard came around, followed by a shorter man with brown shades and a hair sticking up his head randomly. "Iceburg called for some food!" The big man yelled once again.

"Yep, here's your order." Luffy said, handing the workers one of the bags he was holding. "Huh? Where's that pigeon guy?"

Paulie scoffed, taking out a large puff of smoke. "That bastard went to some client's house for some job, he's just taking his damned time there. Slacking at work… how unprofessional."

"That coming from the guy that has to run in the middle of work from some debt collectors." Kaku said, ignoring the glare Pauli sent him.

"Say, where's Ice-ossan? I have his food here." Luffy asked to the other two, ignoring the bickering pair behind him.

"I'll take care of that, Luffy-san."

"Kalifa! Wear some pants you disgraceful woman!"

Luffy grinned, giving the bag to Kalifa. "Please tell Shakky-san to add this to Iceburg's tab." Kalifa said, pulling back her glasses with her middle finger.

"Stop ignoring me, damn it! Wear some damned pants!"

"I believe you should also complain to Luffy-san, Paulie." Kalifa stated, and almost immediately every pair of eyes was placed on the confused boy. "His pants are tighter than they should."

Just how did he get in that kind of situation? He was _so _going to complain to Shakky.

"You're right," The man with the stick-out hair, Lulu, said. "They are way too tight."

"Although it does fit him, he looks really cute on those." Kaku said, his eyes trained on the furiously blushing boy.

"Maybe we should wear those too!" Tileston all but yelled. A couple of grunts came as answer, tough.

Paulie face-palmed, watching Kalifa's disappearing figure as she entered Iceburg's office. "Stop staring at the boy! Look how embarrassed he is now!"

"I think that just made things worse, Paulie." Kaku said, noticing how Luffy's face turned a few more shades of red. "Well, we've kept you long enough, you should go to your job already.

And without further ado, Luffy dashed out of Galley-LA and up to Shakky's bar, his complaints about those tight pants backfiring at him when Shakky mentioned that indeed he looked good on those, meaning there shouldn't be anything to complain about.

The rest of the day went over slowly; today wasn't such a busy day like usual. Good thing Luffy wasn't the only day worker, another girl, Camie, worked with him too. She was rather clumsy, but overall a good friend of Luffy's, knowing everything from his older brother and the rest of his family to his friends. He planned to introduce his friends to Camie one day, they would like her. In the end, Shakky let Luffy and Camie go home earlier than usual, and so, after changing his clothes into his uniform, instead of going home Luffy decided to go and pick Ace up from work.

It was six-thirty already, but somehow the city seemed darker than any other day. Luffy looked up, and found that the sky was filled with dark clouds; he pouted, tonight was going to rain. "I hope we get home before it starts to rain…" Luffy mumbled, realizing that he didn't have an umbrella with him. Ace's workplace wasn't far from Shakky's bar, but with the sky threatening to fall off any moment, Luffy decided to take a small shortcut to get there faster. He went over through some streets and alleys, knowing the place quite well from travelling with Zoro and forcing him to find a way out from all those dead-end alleys he managed to get them both, and after a few turns he finally got to the street that led to Whitebeard Co. He smiled, skipping his way through the empty street; then he stopped abruptly. Luffy turned around, finding nothing but the empty street behind him. He shrugged, must've been his imagination. He continued walking, that previous feeling disappearing completely from his mind. The rain started falling and the raven boy picked up his pace after feeling the rain going down harder by the second. Luffy grinned when he got to Ace's job; he knew the place was big, but this was just bigger than he had expected. He stood in front of the wooden door, and he was ready to knock until he felt it again, that weird feeling of someone staring right at him.

"Who's there?" Luffy asked, he kept staring to the empty street, hoping to see someone, a shadow, whatever it was, but finding it hard to do so with the now pouring rain. He kept watching for a few more seconds nonetheless, failing to notice the figure that crept behind him, until he finally felt a hand on his shoulder forcefully dragging him to the side.

* * *

(1) This actually happened when I fell into an awkward silence with a friend, I knew about the phrase 'an angel passed by', but I found this one funnier.

I think this is the longest chapter I've made by far, just by a couple of Word pages, but still. There wasn't much Straw Hat's interaction though, but worry not! There'll definitely be later on! Oh, oh! Was that a cliffhanger? Yes it was! Dun dun duuuun~! I actually planned to continue this a bit more but… I kind of felt evil and decided to end it here instead, MUAHAHAHA!

I didn't plan to get the Galley-LA workers here tough, but I wanted to show Kaku… dunno why, but I really like him. I think he's hilarious, especially when sticking up for the giraffes! Go giraffes!

I so ruined the cliffhanger mood, didn't I?

Review reply time! (Here's where you all go: Yay!)

**Voquo **I'm glad you liked last chapter (: I seriously believe that if you make Makino mad… well, you'll have to deal with serious consequences… Yeah, I planned on making Jango a bad guy still but, he changed in the actual storyline to be a good guy so, I kinda liked that better haha! And about who's after Luffy, well, you'll see soon enough.

**sdfsdfasdasd **Hahaha! I'm fine, thanks for your concern (: I just love to bring Ace's perviness out, it's too funny to write about! Yeah, I like Jango better as a cop than as a bad guy, don't really know why though… I'm glad you liked that chapter, and you'll see who's the mysterious person soon enough!

**SilverMajix **Oh God, you make me blush XD I'm glad you're liking the story so far, I hope you enjoy this chapter too!

**hilian **I know! When I realized that the chapter wasn't working I was like 'Oh sh-!' but in the end it worked out, thankfully. Don't worry, there'll be more acelu soon enough! I tried to place a few moments here so, hope you enjoyed them along with the chapter!

**Sachiel Angelo **… I've just realized I'm a failure when concerning ages… XD actually, I didn't think about their ages there, but considering the situation I would say that Ace was about 14-15 years old, or something like that… I'm happy you liked the chapter, and about the crew, here they are! They will appear more later on, though.

**lina** I agree, there aren't much AcexLuffy fics around, so I'm just contributing to the cause! Hooray! XD I'm glad you're liking the story so far, and about the mysterious man, well, if I told you it wouldn't be interesting anymore, would it? (:

**Whiteinu1 **Here's next chapter! (Insert trumpets here). I hope you like this one too!

Thank you so much for reading and reviewing and faving and alerting and so on and forth this story! It really makes my day guys, you're awesome.

Do you think giraffes are cool? Review and support giraffes!

~nt'kit


	5. IV

Hello there! This took me longer than what I had expected, I was done with this chapter, re-read it, and deleted half of it. Now I'm really happy with how it turned out, so… I really don't have much to say, except that I really loved to mess with Ace in this chapter XD But oh well, I won't delay you any more with my ramblings, so on with the usual stuff!

Warnings: Dirty-minded Ace, cursing, writing errors… I really want to say Garp in the warnings but… haven't had a chance to write about him… *pouts*

Disclaimer: I find it really unnecessary to rub in my face the fact that I don't own One Piece, you know?

* * *

**Encounters, Encounters**

Luffy felt his heart skip a beat, the pouring rain fell down heavily, almost angrily, making the streets of the Grand Line pitch black save for the scarce light of the lampposts.

He had been so concentrated on finding the man that had been following him that Luffy failed to notice the man behind him, a hand was placed over his shoulder, and with a strong grip he pulled the smaller boy to the side. Luffy's face drained from all color, he turned his head to the side, trying to see that man's face but finding it hard to do when the man was positioned behind him. Luffy tried to move, struggling and trashing away from the man's grip before he was forcefully shoved inside a building.

"What were you doing outside in the rain, eh boy?"

Luffy blinked. He was inside Whitebeard's Co. building. He turned to the side and stared at the man that brought him in. He was blond, his hair sticking up in the front and was growing a black stubble. He passed his hand through his hair while staring at the window. "Seriously, if I hadn't gone out to see how badly was it pouring who knows how much longer you would've stayed out there." He then shifted his gaze to Luffy, finally taking in the boy's appearance. He was on his knees, a small puddle had formed around him, and he was staring at the blond man with wide, innocent surprised eyes. His wet school shirt was clinging on to his lithe body, accentuating the slight curves on his waist and his slightly muscular chest and arms. His hair stuck to his forehead messily, while droplets travelled from his head to his neck, and his lips were parted slightly; he was panting from the scare the man gave him.

The man gulped, and he felt a small twitch forming on his left eye. "Ah, how rude of me. My name's Thatch, nice to meet you." He said while offering a hand to Luffy, which he gladly accepted. "And you are…?"

"I'm Luffy," He said, offering the man his trademark grin. "Nice to meet you!"

The man stared at Luffy, pondering for a few seconds before nodding. "All right, dunno why you were outside Pop's company but, what about I give you a tour, eh?" Thatch said, raising his eyebrows and hugging Luffy by the neck. "If we're lucky, we may be able to steal some food from Vista."

All previous doubts seemed to dissipate at the mention of food. Luffy beamed, completely forgetting why was he in this place and staring at his new friend with stars in his eyes, have he had a tail, he would be wiggling furiously right now. "Really? We can get some food?" Luffy asked, exited beyond comprehension while bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"Yes, yes! And we can also grab some candies from Haruta, I swear that kid has a life-long stock of candies hidden somewhere…"

"Yay! Thatch is the best!" Luffy said, throwing his arms in the air happily, his grin never leaving his face.

"Don't get too close, Luffy, you might get pregnant."

Luffy turned around, unknowingly evading the hug Thatch was about to give him hence leaving the sulking man face first on the floor. "Marco?" Luffy asked.

"Oi Marco!" Thatch yelled, getting off the floor quickly and hugging Luffy from behind while pointing an accusing finger to the blond. "I found him first! So don't try to – eh? You know each other?"

"What are you doing here, Luffy?" Marco asked, bluntly ignoring Thatch.

"I got off work early, so I came to get Ace but…" He trailed off, his gaze unconsciously shifting to the window; the rain was pouring down hard, hitting the glass strongly and making it hard to see anything outside. He hadn't seen anything out there, but he was sure he had felt the presence of someone following him down the road…

"But the rain started to fall?"

Luffy was brought out of his musings at the sound of Marco's voice. He blinked a few times, shifting his gaze to the blond man before smiling. "Yeah…" It was probably just his imagination, he shouldn't make the older man worry. He turned his smile into a grin, and with a more enthusiastic voice he added, "I didn't think it would rain so suddenly, I didn't even bring an umbrella with me!"

Marco stared at the laughing boy, and Luffy settled for a sheepish smile. He could see that the older man was in deep concentration, apparently something about what Luffy said didn't convince him enough, and Luffy cursed on the inside. It was not that he didn't trust Marco, he trusted the man with his life, but he knew that if he told him what happened earlier tonight he would go and tell Ace, and worrying his older brother was something Luffy didn't want. At all. Marco looked at Luffy, a small frown could be seen in his face. "Luffy, you –"

"Oi! Marco!"

"It's Ace!" Luffy beamed, smiling widely while unconsciously turning to the source of his brother's voice.

"Why do you know Ace too?" Thatch walked over to the younger boy, placing his hand on his still wet hair and bringing Luffy close to him.

Marco stared at the sight for a moment. He smirked, it was time for payback. "Ace is Luffy's older brother, Thatch." He said, walking to where the blond man was. He was smirking in a way that made Thatch nervous. "And he's rather overprotective of Luffy, you know…"

Thatch gulped, he stared at Marco and then at the oblivious Luffy. So he was that little brother Ace always talked about… then he remembered how strong Ace was when mad. A shiver ran down his spine. Marco's smirk became wider, he patted Thatch on the shoulder before saying, "You've got ten seconds to run before I speak, so you better hurry."

Those were the only words Thatch needed before he turned Luffy around, a nervous smile was adorning his face while he stuttered. "H-Hey Luffy, what if we g-go and p-play hide and s-s-seek with Ace; we hide and he ch-chases, huh?"

"We're gonna play?" Luffy said excitedly, his eyes beaming and a slight flush was seen on his face; Thatch had to hold himself from squealing. "Alright! Marco! Tell Ace he has to count 'till ten!"

Marco dismissed the boy with a wave of his hand, barely noticing Luffy grabbing Thatch's hand and the older male complying happily.

Ah~ this should be fun.

"Yo, Ace," Marco said, waking up the freckled man that now stood in the middle of a hallway thanks to one of his narcoleptic episodes. Figures. "You were looking for me?"

"Huh?" Ace blinked, letting his eyes adjust to his surroundings while his mind processed what was going on. He then stared at the blond man for a few seconds with a dumbfounded expression until he remembered what was going on. "Oh yeah! The new equipment is here already, every division's head chief needs to go and get their share, and…. What's with that face?"

"Oh nothing, please finish whatever you have to say."

Ace stared at Marco wearily, he knew that look a little too well, and it never ended well for the freckled man. "I… uh…" He needed to be careful, so he took one step back, his eyes trained in the blonds' face and to his dismay, Marco's grin just became wider. "Th-The equipment is in the east of the building and… uh… if you see another division chief you should tell him and – oh for heaven's sake, what? You're really freaking me out, damn it!"

Marco's grin turned into a smirk. He took one step forward and Ace took one back unconsciously. "So I just need to go get my share, right?" Ace nodded. "Well thank you, Ace-_kun_." And with that said, Marco set off, leaving a stunned Ace behind. The raven haired male let out a breath he didn't know he was holding; he ran a hand through his hair while turning his head to the side so he could glare at Marco's back. _What the hell was that?_ Ace thought, _I was sure he was going to – _

"Oh, and Ace?" The hairs at the back of Ace's neck stood while a chill ran down his spine; _there_ was the voice he dreaded! He stared at Marco, waiting for the blond man to continue. Now that he thought about it, he was quite glad there were a few feet that separated him from the blond man, so in case he needed to run he would have one good head-start…. Of course Marco was fast too, but he could go through the hallways and avoid him; going to the center of the building, were everyone was working was out of the question, but maybe at the back were all those boxes were… it was a good place to hide, were no one could see you… "Your brother's here, he's playing with Thatch."

_What?_

"I told him to be careful but, you know Luffy, he never listens; so he took off with him. I think they went to the back of the building…"

_WHAT?_

* * *

"Oh~ look, Thatch! Those wheels are really huge!" Luffy said, pointing at a stack of wheels of all sizes that were placed in one corner. They had crossed the center of the building – where everybody was working at and where all these cool artifacts were – with the promise of going back there once this 'game' of hide-and-seek was done. So now they were currently at the back, where hallways were stocked with every kind of equipment that Luffy just found fascinating. One would never guess that this place was so big, given that the appearance it gave was of just one old little building that could give off at any given time. Thatch and Luffy kept going through the hallways, until they found one pile of empty boxes behind one isle.

"_Thatch! Where the hell are you?"_

With a small 'eep!', Thatch pulled Luffy towards the boxes, "Come on Luffy, let's hide there." He said in a hushed voice, hoping that the boy would get his drift and go there in complete and utter silence.

Luffy, after hearing his older brother calling for his partner-in-crime, went behind the boxes with Thatch, trying his hardest to not laugh. Thatch went behind the boxes first, helping Luffy soon after and placing him in front of him as careful as he could be so that the boxes wouldn't fall down. He grabbed the boy by the waist and held him in place, stilling his breath when he heard some footsteps walking towards them.

Luffy was beyond excited, he was playing hide-and-seek with his new friend and Ace, and in a new place too! Thatch was standing behind him, so he couldn't see the nervous look the man was wearing, but at the moment, the only thing he knew was that he wasn't able to see anything with all those boxes in front of him. He tried getting on the tips of his toes with no avail, so after looking down an idea came across. With as much care as he could muster, he got one foot over the box nearest to him, then he placed his other foot on the box above the previous one, as if climbing a ladder. _"What are you doing?"_ Thatch hissed, and his hold on Luffy's waist tightened as the boy climbed one more box. The footsteps were getting closer, and all of a sudden, the boxes fell down, Luffy going face first towards the floor and Thatch, since his hands never let go of the smaller boy, went down with him.

Thatch could hear a rushing of feet going to where he was, and as he turned his face upwards he saw Ace, his face red in anger and his hands were fisted so hard that the white of the knuckles could be seen. Thatch's face went pale, because from were Ace was standing, this could be such a _funny_ sight…

"You…" Ace started, his whole body was shaking with anger as he saw the scene before him. Boxes were scattered all over the place, and in the middle of them there was a wet Luffy, whose face – which at the moment had a small flush and his eyes were screwed shut – was pressed sideways against the floor, and his upper body was flat against the ground. His butt was sticking in the air while Thatch, who still hadn't let go of Luffy's waist, was hovering over him, kneeling in the ground with his crotch firmly pressed against Luffy's butt.

A tic went off in Ace's right eyebrow before he exploded. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING TO MY BROTHER, BASTARD!"

Funny, he always thought that phrase was stupid and useless, but how he hoped Ace would see that it _really_ wasn't how it looked like. "Wait, Ace! This is not what it looks like!" Thatch said hurriedly, grabbing on to Luffy harder and unconsciously bringing him closer to his crotch.

The tic went faster. "LET GO OF LUFFY, YOU PERVERTED ASSHOLE!"

* * *

"So you got off work early?"

"Yep! And I decided to come here and pick you up, but then it started to rain and I got all wet."

Ace nodded as he opened his locker and got a clean towel. Ace and Luffy were now in the locker rooms of the Whitebeard building; every worker got a locker of their own where they could place their schoolbag and clothes since they had to wear a uniform. Luffy was sitting in a bench while waiting for his brother; after finding him and Thatch on the back of the building, and hitting some sense into Thatch for a good measure, Ace realized that his brother was wet. His hair was dripping slightly and his white school shirt was a bit transparent. He grabbed Luffy by the hand and led him to the lockers so he could dry him up before the boy could catch a cold. Thatch was ordered to follow them and wait outside.

"Then why didn't you call me?" Ace asked as he dried off Luffy's hair, the boy beneath him closed his eyes in content while letting the older male massage his scalp.

"Because I wanted to surprise you." was Luffy's simple answer, and a small grunt left his lips when Ace stopped his ministrations.

Ace chuckled at the boy's antics, he was so easy to please. He placed the towel besides Luffy before he knelt down and started to unbutton Luffy's wet shirt. "Well you did surprise me…" Ace muttered before stopping short in his actions. A small blush crept into Ace's cheeks when his brain registered that he was undressing Luffy. He stopped at the fourth button, and in a rush he went over to his backpack and pulled a spare shirt and some sweatpants. "I-I have to ask something to Thatch, so take off your wet clothes and put this on, okay?" Ace said before going over to the door and disappearing behind it.

Luffy tilted his head to the side while staring at the spot where his brother just left, but shrugged afterwards. He started unbuttoning right were Ace had left him before a small thought crossed his mind; a few seconds ago, Ace had been undressing him. Luffy shook the small blush off of his face and took off his clothes, grabbing the sweatpants Ace gave him and pulling them up. He then grabbed the white shirt, pulling it over his head when something caught his eye. He blinked, going over to the small window that was at the back of the room. Luffy narrowed his eyes, trying to find the shadow he was sure he just saw passing by, but with all that rain crashing into the window his vision could not make out any shapes on the outside.

"_Luffy! Are you done yet?"_

"Yeah…" Luffy said before taking one last look through the window. "Yeah, just a second!" He grabbed Ace's schoolbag and his wet clothes before stepping outside, and he was greeted by a happy Thatch and a muttering Ace. "What's wrong?" Luffy asked, noticing how his brother's scowl deepened by the second.

"Well," Thatch started, grabbing Luffy's hand while ignoring the glare Ace was sending him. "New equipment came, and every division head was supposed to go get it and check that everything is fine with it." Thatch paused, making sure that the now dry boy was still with him. "Your brother is from the second division, but there is no boss as to right now, and he is the most capable one of his division, so he has to go and check the equipment himself right now."

Luffy nodded, signaling the older male that he had understood, "What division are you then?"

A smug smirk graced the older man's face before answering the boy. "I am the head of the fourth division." Thatch's smirk widened when he saw the face of admiration from the younger boy, and now he had a hard time trying to ignore the killer glare Ace sent him. "But since the one that received the equipment was from my division he checked it already and told me everything was fine, so I don't need to go through that trouble anymore."

Luffy nodded in understanding before turning to Ace, whose glare disappeared the moment Luffy grabbed his attention. "Then we're not going home yet?"

Ace sighed, he really wanted to get out of here and head home with Luffy, and they still had to finish arranging their rooms. "It will take me about fifteen minutes," Ace said, getting his schoolbag and Luffy's wet clothes from the younger boy's hands before placing them in the front bag, where no books or scattered papers would get wet. "I'm sorry, Lu, you can head out without me if you don't want to wait."

Thatch walked over to Ace and placed a hand on his shoulder, a stern and innocent façade adorned his features. "I can walk him home, it's dangerous out there y'know? And I can stay with him in your house until you get there…"

"Like hell I'm letting you stay alone with Luffy." Ace muttered, he could feel the twitch coming back full force.

"It's okay," Luffy said, impeding Ace from strangling Thatch and his attempted sad puppy look. "I can wait for you, besides Thatch said he would show me around."

Thatch smirked, Ace frowned.

"Fine," Ace finally said. "When I'm done I'll look for you, okay Luffy?"

Luffy nodded enthusiastically. "Okay! Then we'll head home together!"

Ace nodded, ruffling the younger boy's locks affectionately before turning his gaze to Thatch, a murderous aura surrounded him even though the forced smile Ace was giving him. Thatch sweat-dropped, but stayed in his place nonetheless, even after Ace flung one arm over his blond friend's neck before muttering dangerously in such a low voice that only Thatch was able to hear. "You better not try anything funny with Luffy, or I swear I'll slay your dick with a chainsaw and shove it down your ass, got it?"

The blond man shivered at the threat, because he could actually picture a mad looking Ace holding a chainsaw, flinging it over his head aggressively while blood dripped down the handle of the chainsaw and over to Ace's arm, stopping at the nape of his neck before going down to his bloodstained shirt. Thatch shook the thought aside, he really needed to stop watching all those horror movies. "Don't worry; I won't do anything to your beloved little brother." Thatch said while placing one hand over his chest and the older held high for Ace to see.

Ace sighed, waving the two stupidly grinning boys aside as he headed to the east of the building.

"So," Thatch started, grabbing the younger boy's attention. "Shall we go to the main entrance of the building?"

"Main entrance?" Luffy repeated. "There's another entrance?"

"Yeah, the one where I found you was the back entrance, almost everybody comes through there since it's easier to get there."

"Where's the main entrance then?"

Thatch smirked, motioning the boy to follow him as they walked to the opposite direction. "Do you know that white building with a huge logo of a skull with a beard?" Luffy nodded. "Well, that's the main entrance."

"You're kidding!" Luffy all but yelled, earning a few stares from some workers walking by. "But that's on the other side of the block!"

"Yeah well, all this block belongs to Whitebeard."

Luffy gaped, vaguely wondering why he hadn't asked Ace to bring him earlier. "That's so cool!"

"Oi, Thatch, who's that kid?"

Thatch and Luffy turned around, and stared unblinkingly at the man behind them; he was tall, with black curly hair covered in a black top hat. His broad muscular chest could be seen because of the open shirt he was wearing, and a black curly mustache rested on his calculating face. He was carrying what seemed to be a heavy box over his shoulder being supported only with his right hand, and he stared at Luffy for a while before turning his gaze to Thatch, silently asking him what was going on.

"Oh, hey Vista!" Thatch said, unnecessarily grabbing Luffy by the shoulders and bringing him close in a half hug. "This is Luffy, Ace's little brother."

"Hi!" Luffy greeted with his trademark grin.

Vista stared for a while with his eyebrows raised, he had heard so much about the little kid – not that he wanted to, but Ace mentioned him about every time he could – and smiled, greeting the kid back. "Well, you don't look like your brother at all!" Vista said cheerfully, placing the heavy box on the ground and placing his hands over his hips while inspecting Luffy. "What are you doing here, though? Ace brought you?"

"Nope, I came to pick up Ace from work, but then he had to check some stuff or something like that." Answered Luffy absentmindedly while he crouched down, curiosity taking the best of him as he looked at the contents of the box Vista was holding some seconds ago.

"Ah, yeah, Ace is in charge of his division… sort of…" Vista murmured before smiling at Luffy. "But don't worry, I just finished inspecting my share, I don't think Ace will take much longer." He saw Luffy beaming at him before bouncing gleefully on his spot on the ground. He heard Thatch chuckle, teasing Luffy about how he looked like a little monkey and Luffy retort with a pout. He cleared his throat loudly, gaining once again the kid's attention before speaking. "Well, it was nice to meet you, Ace's little brother, I have some stuff to do right now but," Luffy stared at the man rummaging through every single pocket he had before smiling, he took a bag of cookies from an inside pocket on his shirt and tossed it to Luffy. "Here, if you have the appetite of your brother I reckon you will like this."

Luffy stared at the bag in his hands before cheering, gladly taking a handful of cookies while thanking the big man with his mouth full.

Thatch stared at the cookies, then at Vista. "I believe you're a good man and will give me something too, right?" He said with a wriggle of his eyebrows.

"No way." was Vista's simple answer. He grabbed the box from the floor and placed it once more over his shoulders before staring at the gaping Thatch. "He's Ace's little brother, and he visiting us so – oh! Look at the time, I have to go. See ya!"

And Thatch was left rooted on the spot while watching a snickering Vista trot his way across the wide workplace. "Come back here you greedy bastard!" Thatch yelled, getting a few stares from some passerby's. "You don't even have a damned watch!"

But it was all useless, since Vista was long gone from his sight. Thatch sighed, glancing over to the munching Luffy before saying in a pitiable voice, "Ah well, there's no choice then. I'll have to steal a couple of cookies from – no way! You're done already?" Luffy stared at Thatch for a moment, wondering what was with him and his depressing sight. "Unbelievable, even though you're not real siblings you share the same appetite."

Luffy blinked at Thatch's walking figure before following him. Funny, there was not much people that knew about the fact that they weren't real brothers; in fact, if someone ever asked them about the case they would gladly explain, it was just not a common thing for them both to go around telling everybody that they weren't blood brothers, and the fact that they always referred to each other as such was bound to convince other people. It was just that he never thought someone that he barely knew would know such a thing… "How do you know that?" Luffy asked, innocent curiosity dripping from his voice.

Thatch led Luffy to a big, white door. He opened it and let the raven boy in before he jumped inside. Luffy recognized that place immediately, he had walked past it a couple of times, but he had never found it necessary to get inside. The black marble floor was sparkly clean; white walls didn't show a speck of dust while the front wall had been replaced by a large piece of glass, now dripping with pouring water, permitting every passer-by to admire the variety of cars displayed on the front. They were now standing at the back of the room, where a large skull with a beard was imprinted and several desks with pretty ladies attended some customers, and Luffy could see some other people walking around the cars, inspecting them with approving nods. "Hmm, gotta hurry up the girls," Thatch murmured, he was glancing at a clock placed to their left. "We have to close in an hour or so… Oh and about your question, I've been friends with Ace for a long time."

Luffy cocked his head to the side, confusion written all over his face. "Then why hadn't I met you before?"

Thatch smirked, a memory suddenly crossing his mind. "Your brother always told me stories about your grandpa, it scared the hell out of me to go to your house." Luffy nodded, considering the man to have a fair point there. "Besides, I always see him in school and whenever we hang out. You're in the high school division, so of course you would've never seen me before."

"But now Ace and I live alone, so you can come and play whenever you feel like it!" It was hard to stop the mental images that were threatening to surface on Thatch's mind after Luffy suggested for them to play, and he was doing a pretty good job at it, that is, until Luffy opened his mouth once more. "I would like to play with Thatch sometime!"

It was almost too painful how innocent that boy was, a small smile crept on the blond man's face, he just couldn't resist to say something, just for the sake of hearing Luffy's innocent answer… "Well of course, if Ace is not around and you feel lonely you can always call me so we can… play."

"…_Thatch_…"

It was somehow amazing how the venomous way that someone said your name could freeze your body almost instantly.

Thatch turned around slowly, not bothering to hide the fear he was experiencing at the moment and was greeted with Ace's figure stalling behind him. He had a wicked smile on place, and even though his eyes were closed at the moment his entire figure screamed 'kill'. Well damn his luck. "Ah ha ha, Ace… I-It was not like that, I swear…"

"Ace! Are you done already?" Luffy suddenly said, completely oblivious of the killing aura around him while giving Thatch the chance to hide under the nearest desk. "We should hurry up if we want to finish with our rooms."

Ace glared at the shivering bundle under the desk before sighing, he turned his gaze at Luffy and nodded, "Sure, I'll just get my umbrella and we'll go."

"There's no need, I passed near the changing rooms and thought you would like it – oh, for heaven's sake, what did you do to Thatch this time?"

Ace turned around and saw a face-palming Marco, then he switched his gaze to the sheepishly smiling Thatch as Luffy crouched to be within his eye level, and he turned to Marco once more, grabbing his umbrella and calling Luffy over his shoulder as he exited the room they were at the moment. "He was asking for it…" murmured Ace, stepping into the working area with Marco.

"You do know that Thatch would never lay a finger on Luffy, do you?" Marco asked, lowering his voice enough so that neither Luffy nor Thatch, which were now chatting animatedly besides them, could hear them.

Ace sighed, but a smirk suddenly took possession on the man's lips. "I know, I just wanted to bully him."

"Well, aren't you a sadistic man?" Marco said with a serious expression, but the muscles on the left corner of his mouth gave out a small twitch.

"Oh shut up! I don't want to hear that from _you_, since you started this whole thing!" Ace snapped, pointing the tip of his umbrella to Marco in a menacing way, and which to his dismay, only received a small shrug from the blond.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Marco said before walking off, "You should hurry up, the sky doesn't seem as if it will clear up soon."

And Marco couldn't have been more right, because since the moment Ace and Luffy stepped out of the building it seemed as if the sky begun to fall in pieces over them. Ace hurried Luffy near him, grabbing the umbrella with enough force so that it wouldn't be swept away by the wind any moment soon as they made their way through small alleys they had come to know along the years. They went left and right through the small passages, creating a shortcut on their way, and after ten minutes they were in front of the gates that led to their home. Luffy grabbed the umbrella while Ace fumbled with the keys, finally managing to pass the metallic strip below the sensor of the gate and they both headed to the stairs, at last getting shelter from the pouring rain.

"I'm soaked," Luffy murmured once he was inside his and Ace's home. "Shouldn't have changed clothes, sorry Ace."

Ace shrugged off Luffy's apology with a wave of his hand. He took of his soaked shirt and headed upstairs before answering, "Don't be silly, if you hadn't taken off your clothes you would've caught a cold." He stepped over the edge of the staircase and turned to Luffy, a small smile on his lips. "Go and change to your pajamas, I'll make dinner meanwhile and then we'll finish our rooms, all right?"

Luffy grinned, now that he gave some thought about it, he hadn't eaten anything since Shakky's bar, so food sounded rather good at the moment. He followed Ace's lead and went over to his room, throwing his schoolbag in his bed before grabbing some red, dry boxers and a black night shirt. He hummed a pointless tune on his way downstairs, and heard the distant shuffling in the kitchen. Luffy wiped the drool that had slipped out of the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, reminding himself that he was about to eat something and there was no need to fancy some food before it.

Luffy waltzed over to the kitchen and found Ace with his back at him over at the stove. He was wearing his orange boxers and no shirt, figures. Small chat emerged between the brothers, mostly about what were they going to eat while Luffy placed the plates, glasses and silverware on the breakfast bar before sitting down and waiting for Ace to finish.

"Say, Luffy," said Ace, his back still at his younger brother. "Thatch told me that when he found you… you were staring at the alley while on the pouring rain. He said you looked as if expecting something to jump out of nowhere and attack you, that's why he dragged you in…"

Luffy suddenly felt rather rigid. He did not want to tell Ace that he had felt as if someone was following him through the dark streets, least of all if it had all been his imagination. He knew how Ace was, and he would get in his mother-hen mode if he told him something like that, maybe it wasn't even that important, anything could've been there and Luffy was being just paranoid. He forced a smile on his face when Ace turned around and placed a fluffy omelette on both plates. "Ah, yeah, when I went to fetch you I heard something rustle behind me, but I think it was a cat." He stuffed his face with the food before Ace could pry any further.

"Luffy," Ace said in a low voice, "You know how dangerous those streets are, especially at night."

Luffy gulped and stared right at his brother's eyes. There was something in them, something that he could not quite put his finger to, but he knew. He knew Ace was referring to the day they met on the alleys, and how close they both had been to losing their lives that night. Luffy gave Ace a genuine smile, reassuring him that he would be okay. "I know," he said, placing his fork on the plate at the moment. "So don't worry, I won't do anything reckless."

Ace stared at the boy for a while and sighed, he knew Luffy was strong but… he couldn't help getting worried over the bundle of energy. "Very well," he said, resuming to his eating. "How was school, then?"

"It was great!" Luffy beamed, completely dissipating the gloomy atmosphere that had somehow settled on the kitchen. "We got Spanda as our homeroom teacher and –"

"Spandam?" Ace asked through a mouthful of omelette, "I thought he only taught on the college division."

"Yeah, he said something about getting promoted or something like that… Ah but he's really funny! He's a real klutz, and Buggy is funny too!"

"Buggy, eh… has someone been sent to the infirmary yet?" Ace asked, the traces of a smirk were showing on his face.

Luffy nodded enthusiastically, "Yep a boy who said something about apples."

"How lucky, it seems you got good teachers eh…" Ace said grumpily, munching the last of his omelette before continuing. "I got really lousy teachers, except for Jimbe, he's a nice guy, but that Enel dude really gets on my nerves! I'm surprised he won't ask us to kiss the floor he walked by."

Luffy laughed hearty at his brother's dismay, getting both his and Ace's empty plates before heading over to the sink.

"That reminds me," said Ace, who was now heading over to his brother with the dirty glasses. "Don't you have any homework?"

Luffy shook his head, passing the wet plate to his brother who proceeded to dry it with a clean towel. "I had science homework, but I did it at work since it wasn't that busy. We'll have a math quiz the day after tomorrow, so my friends are gonna come and study here."

"Oh, that's good." Ace said while drying the last of the dishes, he then turned around and faced Luffy, a dangerous smirk was adorning his face which made Luffy gulp. "Then let's go finish our rooms, shall we?"

But Luffy never had a chance to take a step forward, because soon after those words left Ace's mouth he had scooped Luffy upward and placed him over his shoulder, thus holding Luffy by the small of his back while his other hand supported the boy a little below his butt while Luffy's upper body was pressed to the older male's back, having an upside view of Ace's rear and inwardly wishing that his boxers hung a little lower than they were now… Heat rushed to the younger male's face after realizing where his train of thought was heading. He shook his head violently – soon wishing he hadn't when everything in the vicinity started to spin quite fast – and then he started to trash around, the small blush persistently staying on his cheeks.

"Let me go, Ace!" Luffy yelled, now glad that Ace couldn't see his flustered face.

"Never!" Ace shouted, his mirth could be easily distinguished on his voice, and then he started running upstairs with Luffy secure on his hold before dropping him down on his bed and attacking him with a tickling attack, loosing no time and striking the points he knew Luffy was weaker at.

* * *

"So you felt someone following you when you went to Ace's working place?" Nami asked. They were now in homeroom, and Luffy decided to tell his friends what had happened the night before now that the chattering was so loud that he was sure no one could eavesdrop. Spandam had said he needed to grade his college class, so that as long as them 'brats' stayed inside the classroom, he could not care less what they did.

Luffy was currently sitting in his chair while Nami decided to take a sit on the boy's desk. She was flinging her legs lightly, a confused look on her face but it had been Usopp the one that had spoken. "And did you manage to see who that person was?" He said, he was sitting across Luffy, his side facing his desk while Vivi, unlike Nami, had decided to just lean on Usopp's desk.

"Nope," said Luffy, shaking his head from side to side. "It was really dark and the rain wouldn't let me see a thing."

Sanji's right hand went over to his mouth, but after realizing he was in school and couldn't have a cigarette on his mouth let it slide down to his side once more. "Well, it could have been anything," he said, staring down at the boy from his position between the girls. "You said it was an alley, so it could've been a drunkard or an animal hiding from the rain."

"Maybe, but Luffy said he saw a shadow on the lockers' room window." Luffy turned his head around to see Zoro, he had his arms crossed and his penetrating gaze was staring down on Luffy, making him almost wish he hadn't told them anything at all.

Luffy smiled sheepishly, "Yeah, but nothing happened, right? And when we were heading back there was no one following us."

Zoro kept staring at Luffy but kept quiet. He had known the boy for long enough to understand him, and he knew he had this tendency to take it all on himself and prevent the others from worrying unless it was really necessary. He had told them what happened on that alley, which meant that if anything else happened he would tell them right away, and would not doubt to ask them for help, but as long as he wasn't sure of what was going on he would not drag his friends down with him. Zoro closed his eyes in an attempt to prevent the boy to see his worry, it was not that he didn't trust him, but if things got out of hand before he could tell them…

"But, you will tell your brother everything if things persist, right?" said Vivi, her worried gaze falling on Luffy's grinning face.

Luffy gave them all his trademark grin, assuring them that he would be fine. "Of course I will, I just don't want Ace to worry about me if there's nothing wrong."

The rest of the period went too fast for their liking. Spandam had finally snapped with all the noise going on and about in the classroom, he had made little progress in grading his college students and by the time Luffy had finished discussing the previous night's events with his friends Spandam rose to his feet and, not realizing just how close his cup of steaming hot coffee was to his stack of papers, and he slammed his fist on the mahogany desk, spilling the hot contents of his cup into the papers and himself. With a loud yelp he jumped out of his seat, running around in circles while yelling in pain, successfully making a fool of himself.

The bell that signaled the end of homeroom sounded throughout the whole school, and with some groans and a bit of reluctance the students left to their next class, quite disappointed on having to miss another of Spandam's mini-adventures.

"What's your next class, Luffy?" Nami asked, taking the crumpled paper from Luffy's hands while examining it carefully. Her eyes scanned the piece of paper carefully before answering, "History, huh? I don't reckon any of us having history next…" Her eyes traveled shortly through the rest of the group, and after glancing at their own schedule they shook their heads. "Seems you'll be alone in this one, well, see you in Math class!"

With a groan Luffy bid goodbye to his friends, going down the stairs and over to the furthest room to the left. He found himself inwardly wishing History would end quickly so he could go to Gym class with Sanji and Zoro. It was well known that the three of them were at the top in the sports department, and with their competitive nature Gym was bound to be a really interesting class, not to mention every time Sanji and Zoro would have a go at each other… So immersed on his thought Luffy didn't notice when he was standing in front of a door, he looked up and checked the room number with his schedule, this was the class he was looking for. After heaving a sigh, he opened the door to the classroom. It was almost full already, there was a group of girls chatting amongst themselves rather loudly on the back corner of the room, and a smaller group of guys, standing opposite to the girls, murmured between themselves something Luffy couldn't quite catch, some of the guys would steal some glances every now and then to the loud girls.

Luffy walked over to an empty seat in the middle of the room, after a quick glance he noticed that he didn't know anybody here, but that only thrilled the boy a little more at the prospect of making new friends here.

"Rather noisy, aren't they? They've been shrilling and squealing every chance they get. A bit annoying, if you ask me."

Luffy turned to his right to see the owner of that voice, a girl with short, messy blond hair was smiling at him. She was really pretty, and her light brown eyes held something akin to a mixture of curiosity and excitement. "My name's Margaret," she said.

Luffy sent her his infamous grin before answering, "I'm Luffy, nice to meet you!"

A really high-pitched shriek made him cringe unpleasantly, he gave the group of girls a reproachful glare before turning to Margaret once more. "You're right, they are really noisy."

"They've been like that since I entered the classroom." Margaret said with a sigh. "They're starting to get on my nerves… Anyway, do you know who our History teacher is? I heard he's new here."

Luffy shrugged, not really interested on who the new guy would be. "No idea, but I hope he's funny."

Luffy and Margaret spent the next five minutes talking about anything and everything, he found it really easy to talk with her, and just like Camie, he hoped he could introduce Margaret to the rest of his friends soon. Margaret was in the middle of explaining Luffy how to get to the 'Mero Mero Coffee' from the school, the place where she worked at, before the ringing of the bell signaled the start of class once again.

The room fell silent at once when the door burst open not a second after the ringing ceased. A tall, bulky man walked towards the front of the class. His half-buttoned white shirt showed a hairy board chest, he had curly black hair, long and unruly, and a messy black beard growing beneath his mouth. His crooked nose was held up in the air and his dark eyes scanned his desk before stopping. His whole demeanor demanded fear and respect. He turned around to face his students, and with a big smirk in place he introduced himself. "Good day, class. As you had already figured out, I'll be your new History teacher, Marshall D. Teach."

* * *

I swear I didn't intend to end this chapter like this… but I took longer than I expected on the first scene and after I realized it, I had more than ten Word pages written down…

On a brighter note, the plot will finally move!

So, on with the reviews and so,

**crimeson-plasma **I'm so glad you liked the chapter! And thanks for the compliment on the characters, I hope you liked this chapter too!

**Voquo** Hahaha I know, those birds will soon plot world domination. I actually wasn't sure on making Spandam their teacher, but then I found how easy it is to bully him, with him being so clumsy, so I kind of found myself plotting stuff on him… Shame on me… I'm glad that the Boa part made you laugh! And I understand, wouldn't mind either to see Luffy in that get-up. I hope you liked this chapter too!

**Sachiel Angelo **I'm glad you liked last chapter, and worry not! Nothing bad will happen to Luffy… in this chapter… XD Yeah, I plan on making Luffy strong in here, but I hadn't actually found the moment to make him show off his abilities… but yeah, I plan on making him strong.

**Whiteinu1 **Hahaha I do too, and I hope I can write a glaring contest between Ace and Boa soon! Thanks for reviewing! (:

**hilian **Thanks! I'm glad I made you smile in the Boa part! Haha I'm sorry, I kind of plan to go a bit slow-paced on the yaoi, as to keep a good pace with the plot of the story, but I plan to leave a hint here and there on their relationship meanwhile, there'll be something you'll like in a few chapter's time, though… *evil smile*

**Jewels Rewls **I'm honored! I really hope this story gets to be of your liking then (: Thanks for reviewing!

**Shukura-san **XD Don't worry, it has happened to me before, and I usually review on the last chapter before I know it. I'm glad you're liking this story, and well, I'm actually really excited with this story to let it behind so… XD

**Tainted Ink And Paper **Thank you so much! I'm really glad you liked this story, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter too!

And… that's it! I hope you all liked this chapter as well, and I hope I can update soon! See you next time!

**~How to make an author happy~**

**1. 1 cup of chapter five (according to FF)**

**2. ½ a spoon of excitement**

**3. 1 click on the blue words below**

**Stir well and let it cool for 15 minutes. After it's done, you will be able to enjoy a nice serving of happy author!**

Crack-ish moment, don't really know what got me there… XD

~nt'kit


End file.
